


The Irish Guy

by letssunshine



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Accident, Angst, Angst and Humor, Babysitting, Clubbing, Comforting, Dancing, Established Relationship, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Friends With Benefits, Greece, Happy Ending, Hospital, Jealousy, London AU, One Night Stands, Panic Attacks, Skype, Summer Holidays, Swimming Pools, Tour, Vacations, managment, surprise trips, vespa
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-13
Updated: 2013-12-16
Packaged: 2018-01-01 10:23:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 20
Words: 47,474
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1043695
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/letssunshine/pseuds/letssunshine
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What happens when a trip to a coffee shop in the outskirts of London leads to meeting one of the members of the biggest boyband on the planet and you don't even recognise him... Set in Paris sometime during 2014.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

‘I‘ve been up and down and over and out, and I know one thing… mmmm… I pick myself up and get back in the race …mmm… THAT’S LIFE …’Sinatra was singing in my ear through my headphones. ‘And I can’t deny it …’I was singing along with him in my head. ‘I’m gonna roll myself up in a big ball and die…’I hummed in a low voice as I pushed the door of the coffee-shop and got inside. I took off one of my headphones and headed to the end of the line, waiting patiently to order. I took one step forward as the line proceeded and opened one more google-search tab on my phone. This was unbelievable! I thought you could find anything online! Apparently, I could find ANYTHING apart from the address I was looking for… agh… I let out a frustrated sigh and continued scrolling down…- “May I take your order please?!” the girl behind the counter asked me a bit abruptly. What’s her problem? I thought. “Well yes … A medium drip macchiato please.” I told her as politely as I could not wanting her to spit in my coffee. I paid for my drink and went to wait for it in the end of the bar. This could not be happening to me! This was the only day I would be able to visit this place and still I couldn’t locate it. I took off my other earbud annoyed with my phone at the time and looked around. The guy with the hoodie and the sunglasses that was in front of me in line was now waiting next to me. He looked familiar but I didn’t ponder on it. After all London is full of blond guys. You think so? Well I could give it a try? Ok. There you go. Man up and ask him. It’s just a question. I thought to myself. “Em…Hi… I’m sorry” I said to the blond guy “May I ask you a question?”. He looked up at me a bit startled. “Yeah, sure…” he said a bit hesitantly. “I am sorry if I am bothering you, but I want to go this address” I showed him the text in my phone. “It’s something like a small park, and it is supposed to be somewhere around here…” I trailed off, measuring his face… well as much as I could see of it at least. “It’s ok if you don’t know… I am probably in the wrong area…” I told him as I made a gesture to take my phone back. His eyes were fixed in my screen and he didn’t respond making me think for a split of a second that he would take my phone and start running. “No. I think I know this place.” He said back in a funny accent. Oh god… I’ll never get a hold of the variety of British accents. Was that even British? I thought quickly as I tried my best to keep up with him. “I think there is a park, a couple of blocks around the corner. I’m not sure…Maybe 40 meters or something…”he said a bit too fast for me. “Ok… I’m sorry. English is not my native language. Let me see if I got right…” I eyed him and smiled politely. “Ok.” He said returning the smile. Have I seen this guy before? He is definitely not an actor? Is he a model or something? Where have I seen him before? “So… I get out of the store…and turn…”I trailed off eyeing him politely so to help me finish my sentence. “Left.” He said with a reassuring smile waving me to go on. I let out a small laugh and went on. “I get out, turn left and walk a couple of blocks…and I am there?” I asked a bit troubled. “Yeah…pretty much…” he said grinning. You have a cute smile blond guy… “It’s hard to wrap my head around it… I’ve being looking for this park for a whole hour and I am suddenly right next to it.” I said shaking my head in disbelief and picking up my coffee. He let out a small laugh in my comment and picked his drink too.Tumblr? Have I seen you in my dashboard cute boy?“Well…Thank you VERY much! Honestly. You are officially the best British guy I ever met!” I said and we both headed to the door. “Oh no, no ,no… I’m not British! I’m Irish!” he said pulling a half shocked half offended face that made me wanna laugh rather than feel ashamed. “Oh, I’m sorry…” I apologized quickly biting anxiously my lip. He laughed at my expression amused by me being clueless. “No, it’s fine. It was nothing. I’m glad I helped you.” he said cracking me one more smile. So that’s behind the accent… IRISH? I repeated in my head. Why that does actually ring a bell…? “It was something for me. Thanks again any way…” I told him and I think his cheeks turned a bit red. I couldn’t help but give him my very best smile as we exited the coffee-shop. He started walking to a black car on his right and I turned left replaying in my mind everything that had just happened. Oh…Oh no…I turned on my heels and took two large strides towards his direction. “Hey!…Irish guy?!” said loud enough for him to hear me. He turned around. He had heard me. “Is there any chance you‘d like to walk with me to this park?” I told him titling head to where the park was supposed to be. He looked at me and then the black car biting his lower lip. “Come on it’s just a couple of blocks …” I told him flushing my most charming smile. He smiled at my phrase and shook his head amused. He turned and headed to a tall man standing next to the black car. I was about to turn and leave when he started walking again towards me.


	2. Chapter 2

   I let out a shy laugh when he was standing again next to me. “I wanted to make sure you didn’t get lost.” He said smiling pulling his hoodie down. “Then, you are definitely the nicest guy I’ve met in this country. I’m Helen.” I said and stretched my hand to shake his. “Niall” he said simply.  _Yeah… you definitely are…_

 

“So Niall… you live around here? You visiting? Or just passing through?” I asked honestly not knowing the answer myself. “What kind of _Irish guy_  I’d be if I didn’t live in Ireland?!” he said eyeing me playfully and I laughed at his expression. “I’m just here for the week.” he continued as I took a sip of my still hot coffee. “Lucky you… I have to be back in Paris in two days…” I said with a sad hint in my voice. “Oh! You are from Paris!?” he said with mere excitement in his voice. “Well…no.” I said with a tight smile hating killing his buzz. “I’m not from there I just moved there only for six months.” I said and took one more sip. “Oh…why…? Where are you from?” he said troubled by my answer. But I couldn’t concentrate on answering him. “…if I may ask of course…” he continued half a second later as my eyes where fixed in front of me and I seemed to be oblivious of everything around me. “Yes, yes you may ask.” I said still not looking at him “…just…just give me a second…” I said as I tried to capture the site in front of my eyes. “Please tell me that this is the park.” I said with a pleading voice. “Oh, yes that’s it!” he replied in relief understanding  why I couldn’t continue our conversation any more. I could see him smiling with the corner of my eye. I turned to face him. Shock, surprise, excitement… I was overwhelmed. He let out a small laugh seeing my face expression and I snapped out of my bubble.  _Concentrate…Reality!_  “Sorry.” I said shaking my head and laughing with myself shyly “I’m sorry, yes… you were saying?” we both laughed at my response. “God! This is amazing! I can’t take my eyes off of it! It’s like Neverland!” I said with a huge smile across my face. “Stop laughing at me! I mean it… I don’t get this kind of sights every day…” I made an attempt to stop him from laughing at my reaction. It was impossible… I shook my head and took some steps forward. It got even better with every step I took. It was a small paradise in the middle of nowhere in north London. I stopped and turned to look back at Niall. He wasn’t following me. I dropped my smile and went closer to him. His lips were a tight line. He was glancing between me and his shoes. “Yeah…” I said in a sad voice “I know…you want to go back to your car…” I told him meeting his apologetic eyes. “It’s not that…” he said and shot an anxious glance behind my back at the peaceful park “I… I have to go back…” he said hesitantly. “How can you even turn away from this place?” I turned to take one more glance at the blooming park  “Seriously…? When was the last time you’ve ever sat down in the grass?… just lay there?” I asked him pointing at the sunbathed place right in front of us. “…It’s been a while I have to admit…” he said biting his lower lip. “Look if you have other plans then you should go. I am grateful for your help honestly and I am so excited I could hug you right now! But I don’t want to make you run late…” I began measuring his face. “No, I don’t have plans …” he said in a low voice, his eyes glued to the ground. “Oh…you don’t want to be out for too long …” I trailed off “… you think twitter would blow off if someone spotted you out, nevertheless with company…” I said in a low sad voice, gluing my eyes to the ground too, a bit ashamed. I could sense him eyeing me and I looked up. He was confused and surprised at the same time. “I figured who you are a couple of minutes ago…” I confessed. “I’m sorry, but I’m not part of your fandom so the hoodie did the trick for me…” I said a bit anxiously not wanting to upset him. He let out a halfhearted smile. I smiled too. “… You have a pretty extreme fandom by the way… there is no way you five could pass by unnoticed…” I said in a joking tone. “Tell me about it! You have no idea…” he said with a small laugh. I smiled back at him. “Well, to my defense I doubt any of these three couples relaxing in the park and enjoying the sun will tweet about you…” I said playfully managing to get him to laugh once more. “It’s not just that… although the twitter stuff is a bit nerve wracking sometimes… All it will take is a tweet and there goes your peaceful park and my relaxing walk around London…” he said measuring my expression this time. I gave him a crooked smile. “I think it will be fine…” I said, went to stand by his side and looked at him with the corner of my eye. “Come and I promise I’ll tell you all about my home town, Paris and why I moved…What you say?” I flushed the most loving smile I possibly could and gave his shoulder a small nudge with mine. We both started walking towards the amazing park.

   I put my bag down and set my coffee on the grass. I unbuttoned my jacket, sat down and title my head up. “I think I can’t ever get enough of this.” I said with my eyes closed, facing the sun. “Yeah…” Niall said mimicking my posture. We were both lying on our elbows flat in the ground with our legs flexed in front of us. “I am from Greece.” I said after a second of silence. “And I’ve really missed a warm sunny day. I’m not used to so much rain…” I said with a nostalgic voice turning my head to see Niall mesmerized by the warmth of the sunrays. “You have no idea where Greece is, don’t you?” I said with a small laugh. He laughed at my assumption. “No, I know where Greece is! I was really good at geography, seriously!” he said with a serious face but I couldn’t help letting a small laugh escape. “Ok, I believe you… Have you ever been there?” I asked. “Well no, but it seems as a nice country…” he said guessing. “It is a very beautiful country, great for vacations actually. But you shouldn’t go in august. You would freak out of how hot it can get…” “I think I could handle it.” “You are from Ireland! You wouldn’t last a day dear…no offence…” I said and he let out a genuine Niall laugh. “You have a point.” He said and it was like a deja-vu. “I have +42 Celsius points…”I joked. It was like looking a Niall gif in my dashboard. “So how you ended up in Paris?” he asked as I laid flat on back. “In Greece, my uni gave me the opportunity to have a semester abroad. So I chose Paris. UK wasn’t an option at the moment, by the way, or I’ll probably be living around here by this point.” I said capturing everything that surrounded me. “Aaa…that’s why you only have six months… What are you studding?” he asked. “Officially I’m studding architecture and engineering, but in reality my uni is very different than that. We spend more hours learning how to make and edit videos, how to become excellent photographers and stuff like that… We create something every day. Small furniture, movies, clothes… everything that pops up in our heads actually. ” I told him, words not doing justice to my extraordinary daily routine. “We even create music…” I said with one hand motioning at him. He gave me a troubled look. “Well, in our own extraordinary way. Have you ever seen the Stomp?” “Yeah… they are very good…” “There was a kid that made a project based on that way of making music. You’d liked it…” “He was just on his own… how did he do it?” “He wondered all by himself around the city and started making sounds with whatever he found and a friend of him was filming him.” “It sounds very impressing.” “Yeah, most of the projects are very inspired.” “So it’s more arts than engineering and stuff?” “Definitely. But, we have engineering classes too. They aren’t so fun though.” I said with a small frown. “You know, I wanted to become an engineer if the music stuff…or the band didn’t happen for me.” He said casually. “Really?” I asked. “Yeah…”he responded and I let out a shy laugh. “I bet any other proper directioner in the world would have known that…” I asked a bit embarrassed. “Probably, yes…” he said and we both laughed. “Oh my God…I am ashamed of myself…” I said hiding my face in my palms laughing. “You must be extremely bored discussing with me things you probably have already said a thousand times in interviews…I ‘m so stupid…”I said with a sarcastic frown and he started to protest “…No no, I know how I’ll make up for it! You just lay there…” I waved him to lie flat on his back “I’ll go on with our conversation and if I need your input I’ll just google it…” I said playfully and we both started laughing. His laugh was loud and clear. Maybe too loud for the extremely silent park, but somehow it made me wanna laugh even more. “You don’t have to be sorry. It’s fine. Really, it’s not boring at all.” He said with a smile that made me blush this time. “Are you sure? I can steel google 100 facts about 1D…” I said with a smile and made a fake move to grab my phone. “Please, don’t!” he fake begged me and I laughed at his expression. “Ok ok I won’t. Calm down…” I said and laughed more. These girls know more about me than my mother does… It’s unbelievable.” He said shaking his head in disbelief .“Yeah, I know…I have a Tumblr too.” I said and tried to physically shake some of the images out of my head. “Oh my God, don’t even mention this site!” he said and titled his head back and let out a breath. “Come on… it’s not that bad.” I said absent minded. “Now I am ashamed!” he said with surprise in his voice. “Hey! I don’t live under a rock with no wifi! I’ll admit it. I’ve seen and read stuff…” I said in a low voice biting my lower lip. “I wanna die!” he said and laid on the grass flat in his stomach, his face hidden. I let out an involuntary laugh amused by his reaction. I was just messing with him but he wasn’t aware at all and it made me wanna laugh like a crazy person. “Don’t freak out…” I told him playfully, still laughing and shoved his solder with my right hand. “I haven’t gone through your hash tag. Ever. Honestly.” I said still amused. “But after that kind of reaction, I might have too…” I told him just to see his face go in what had to be shock and horror. I didn’t know what it was but I immediately burst into laughs. “No no no please!” he said abruptly standing on his knees, his eyes wide open. “No, there’s nothing to see there. It will just ruin your brain.” he continued but I couldn’t stop laughing. “You can’t do that. Promise you won’t go through my hash tag.” He made an effort to make me stop laughing. “What if want to find a good photo of you…?” I asked faking an innocent face while trying to hold back a laugh. “We’ve met after all…” I told him motioning between us still trying to calm myself. “Take a picture now!” he said, stood up and flashed me his perfect teeth making me wanna start laughing all over again. “Please, site down…” I told him between laughs. “Oh my god I am doomed!” he said with a smile firing one more round of my hysterical now laughs. “No, you are actually hilarious.” I said when my phone started ringing. “I give up.” He said and I answered my phone with a huge grin. “Hello?”


	3. Chapter 3

“Hello?” I said since I hadn’t glanced at the screen before I picked it up. “Oh, hey honey. How did it go?…” I went on taking one more sip from my half empty coffee at the moment. “No, there is nothing wrong with me. I have company and I don’t want to be rude and speak in front of him in a language he doesn’t understand.” I said and turned to give Niall a warm smile. He returned it and for some reason I felt really awkward…  _Or embarrassed?_ I had no idea what it was but I could look away until I heard the question in the other end of the line. “No, I am completely sure he won’t kidnap me and then sell my kidneys…” I said hiding my face in my palm, laughing in embarrassment, Niall laughing next to me too. “I couldn’t…she is taller than me…” I heard him say in a low playful voice between laughs making me roll my eyes at his comment. “Yes, please…I am starving! Pizza?” I continued on my phone. “Ok, I’ll see what I can find near the hotel. I won’t be long.” I said before I said goodbye and hung up. “Sorry about that. It was my best friend. She came here for an interview and I kind of tagged along with her for the trip.” I explained him. “No, it’s fine. You have to go back?” he asked politely. “Well, I would love to stay more. Really. But I have a very vague idea of how to get back to my hotel… and I have to pick up food on my way there as well. It will probably take me some time…” I said frowning at the thought.  _How will I manage all that in the next hour?_  “Where are  you staying?” he asked trying to help me once more for this day. I old him the name of my hotel and continued with a smile. “I think I’m turning you in to my personal gps.” I said sarcastically and we both laughed. It was clear that he found my comment more amusing than I did. Or he just had a pretty strong laugh… “Well I might not know exactly how you can get there, but when we talk food. I think I know every single place in London!” I raised my eyebrows while I started picking my stuff from the grass. “Ok then… We were thinking about pizza. Anything you can recommend?” I went on while we exited the park. “Definitely… There this amazing place. The best slices you’ll ever taste! From the outside it doesn’t look like much, but believe me they are the best! Great pizza, great price and they give you take out!” he mumbled in excitement. I let out a small laugh. “So much enthusiasm for a pizza place… It has to be good!” I commented and he smiled. “And the location of this amazing place if I may…?” I said as we walked back the road that led to the coffee shop and his car. “It’s on the Tower Bridge Road . It’s in the right corner as you face…” he trailed off as I gave him a puzzled look. “I speak too fast…?” he said almost as a statement and not a question. “No no …You just mumble about streets I’ve never heard before. And no matter how much I’d love to have a good take-out in this country for a change I am sure I’ll get lost.” I said honestly with a sad smile. “Oh no, you won’t get lost…” he said trying to convince me. I smiled at him politely. “Believe me I probably will. I could find a park that was two blocks away and you want me wander in London center on my own, seriously?” I asked him raising my eyebrows. He let out a small laugh as I stopped in front of the coffee shop for the second time that day. He gave me a hesitant look, mimicking my action as he glanced at the car waiting for him. “I could give you a ride…” he said in a low voice. I stayed silent. “Well Paul will be driving actually…” he said playfully measuring my face as I didn’t know what to say. “Honestly I don’t know what to say…” I said and I could see disappointment appearing on his features. “I mean, I am flattered! Seriously I am!” I told him quickly. “But I just… don’t want to be a burden…” I explained. “You are not. Not at all…” he said as his cheeks turned pink and there was a smile on my face before I even knew it. “You already spend half of your day with me it’s not fair to drive you somewhere so that I get to have good dinner.” I said trying not to jump in his car without a second thought. “Who said you are the only one buying pizza?!” he said faking a socked face and motioning me to follow him. I followed him as I couldn’t help the huge grin that was spreading across my face. “Are you sure this isn’t your attempt to kidnap me and sell my kidneys?” I asked sarcastically and we both laughed until we reached the car that was waiting for him. “Hey guys…” he greeted the two men standing next to the car. “This is Helen. She is coming with us.” He said as I waved a polite hi to them and we both climbed into the car. “Paul, will make a quick stop at Basilico” he said patting the drivers shoulder “and then at the Apart Hotel.” He said flushing me a smile. He had taken his glasses of without me noticing and he took me by surprise. “That’s where you staying, right?” he asked half a second later while I was still staring at him. No, not him. His eyes.  _Tumblr doesn’t do you justice, I thought._ “Yes.” I said snapping out of me thoughts. “I’d like to say that you don’t have to take me to my hotel, leave me at a metro station or something, but I think I can’t.” I said playfully smiling at him. “It’s fine.” He said and let out a small laugh. “I literally can’t!” I said and we both laughed.

   We soon were at the pizza place waiting in the car for the man sitting next to the driver to come back with our order. Beatles were playing in the radio and I was watching people passing  by through my black glassed window _. Mmm…baby you can drive my car…_ I sang along the radio very quietly bouncing my left foot along the music. “You like the Beatles huh?” Niall asked me with a smile and I immediately blushed. “When I was 12 I knew all their discography by heart.” I admitted shyly. “A! So you can be a proper fangirl…?” he asked teasingly. “I was 12! My whole life could be downloaded and crumbled in my mp3.” I said raising my eyebrows at his comment. “And for the sake of it, most of them were dead at the time. Social media updates take fangirling to another level.” I continued and he agreed with me.  _He never stops smiling, does he?_ ‘And from 60s we came back to 21 century to another huge British boy-band’ the radio said and the music started to play. ‘1ds new song ladies and gentlemen…’ the man went on and I turned to look at Niall. “It was only a matter of time… Three out of four songs on the radio are yours…” I told him not believing it myself. “You are exaggerating.” He said as his door opened and he was handed four pizza boxes. “You are that much hungry? Or you gonna share with the rest of the group back in your hotel?” I asked as the car took off again filled with a mouthwatering smell. “I am always that hungry… And no, the others have their own places. I stay all by myself at the hotel.” He said casually. “All by yourself?!” I asked genuinely surprised. “Yeah…” he said and turned to look at me. “That’s a shame. Now I feel bad… You can’t have dinner all by yourself… Especially that dinner!” I said pointing to the boxes. “No it’s fine.” He said with a halfhearted smile and turned to look outside the window. “Niall Horan?” I said making him look back at me. “I would be extremely happy and honored if you’d like to come and have dinner with me and my roommate.” I said flushing a crooked smile at him. He shook his head smiling with my attempt to seduce him not to dine alone. “There will be beers too.” I said taking my phone out of my pocket casually. “Pizza, beers, girls…Are you sure you are not a directioner?” he said eyeing me suspiciously before we both laughed. “I’m not a directioner. You just function like any other guy in the planet.” I said joking and he shook his head in agreement. “Guys, we are almost there.” the driver said looking at Niall through the rear mirror. “Front or back?” he asked and I turned to look Niall with a tinny hope that’s wouldn’t the last minute I got to spend with him. He turned to look at me too with a clear uncertainty in his eyes. “Back.” He said still looking at my eyes. _Yes! If I continued to smile like this my cheeks will soon start to hurt._

The driver pulled over and we both got in the hotel. Hoodie and sunglasses were back too. We took the elevator and I knocked on my room door.


	4. Chapter 4

 ‘Coming…’ we heard the voice from inside the room. I flushed a reassuring smile at Niall. “I am 100% sure she will recognize you the second she opens the door.” I said half smiling already and a hint of concern appeared on his face. “Don’t freak out, she won’t scream. She is not a directioner, just an internet freak.” I reassured him and our small chuckle was interrupted when my hotel room door opened. My roommate was in shock as I had predicted. Her body was frozen, her eyes travelling between me and Niall while she was still holding a firm grip on the door knob. “Hey V!” I said trying not to burst into laughs since I knew exactly what was going on in her head. “I brought company!” I said flushing a huge don’t-hate-me-I-am-adorable grin at her. “I can see that!” she finally said her eyes wide open peering into mine with an almost angry look. I couldn’t respond to that. I bit my lips trying not laugh and make her snap at me right then and there. “We brought food!” Niall said like he knew the mention of food would make her less mad at me. We all let out a small laugh and my roommate started shaking her head in disbelief. “Come inside you two…” she said making us room to come in still not believing what was going on.

   Me and Niall walked inside and placed the boxes on a table with my roommate hot on our heels whispering “God…what have I done to deserve her?” irony evident in her voice. I smiled in contempt. I knew that whenever she said something like that she was more than excited to have me around. “I heard that…” I said still smiling and took a few strides closer to her. I put an arm around her waist pulling her to a side-hug. “Niall, I would like you to meet Vicky.” I said and flushed her what I consider to be my adorable grin. She gave me a warning look, letting me know that she knew me long enough not to be fooled by my charms. “Vicky, this is Niall H-” I went on when she interrupted me. “Seriously?! You think I don’t know who he is?” she said and I bit my lips again. “Nice to meet you Niall.” She said stretching her right hand at him. “Nice to meet you too.” He said and shook her hand half amused by mine and Vicky’s interaction and half embarrassed of being the topic of the discussion. She waked away from my embrace and I could see a genuine smile lingering on her face. “I’ll deal with you later.” She told me and went to pick up some stuff from her bed. “Niall I am so sorry for the mess in here, but she only texted me to buy beers! You couldn’t add four more words?!” she said clearly not knowing what I was thinking at the time. “Beers are much more important!” Niall said and we all laughed at the comment. I got three beers out the mini fridge while they others were already helping themselves their first slices. “Niall feel free to take another one if you want.” Vicky said pointing to his beer. “No, I’m good.” He said taking one more slice. “Ha… That’s a new one. Niall Horan won’t take another beer…” she said teasingly and we all let out a small laugh. “Aaa… you know he is eats like a crazy person…?” I said titling my head to her direction excited and surprised with my friend. She and Niall were sitting on opposite beds while I was on the space between them, legs crossed underneath me on the floor. “Emm…yeah…He is Niall. Who doesn’t?” she said frowning, glancing between me and him. “I didn’t…” I said faking a troubled face. “You are not allowed to say you are my roommate anymore.” She said waving negatively her index finger at me. “Tell me at least, that it took her less than 10 minutes to recognize you…” she said almost pleading at Niall, who was smiling casually at both of us. “Em…more or less.” He said hesitantly eyeing me like he was about to spill a secret. I couldn’t help but let a small laugh escape. “Oh God! You are unbelievable! I’ll pray for you…” she said and patted my head playfully making Niall burst into what I knew now that was his signature loud laugh. “Ha, ha, very funny…” I said sarcastically folding my hands on my chest and shoved away from her. “…and you keep laughing?” I nudged Niall who went on amused by my expression this time. “Ok, then. You asked for it young man…” I made an attempt to give him an evil look. “V? You want to see Niall freak out?” I went on and in a split second Niall’s eyes were about to pop out. “What?” she asked troubled while Niall let out a long “No” titling his back. “V have you gone through his hash tag?” I said and immediately started laughing at the sight of him burying his face in my pillows and repeating “Please say no…” over and over again. “I think so…once. I don’t know. Why?” she said making Niall stand up and holding his head. “This is a nightmare!” he said and I laughed even harder. “Helen what the hell did you say to the poor guy about his hash tag and he is acting like this?” she said titling her head closer to mine while we both watched what was supposed to be a freaked out Niall. “Me? Nothing! He just goes into crazy mode every time I mention it.” I replied. “Why? What’s the big deal about his hash tag?” Vicky asked with pure honesty. “Niall dear, is there something we should know about your hash tag?” she asked teasing him. “No…I mean…I don’t know…” he said a bit confused as he sat back down on my bed. “Well, I’ll just say I have seen far weirder things than what there is in your hash tag, and I spend tremendous amounts of my time googling stuff.” Vicky said casually. “That coming from her…I believe you are safe and I promise I won’t mention this again.” I said as I sat next to him. He turned at me with a small smile. I winked at him playfully trying to loosen him up. It worked. I was looking at his smile when a small blinking sound came from my computer. I smiled back and reluctantly went to my pc. “I still can’t believe that you are in my hotel room. Flesh and bones!” I heard V telling him while she picked up an empty pizza box. “How did she even lure you to come up?” she went on. “Food.” He said lying on the bed with one hand casually behind his head. They both started laughing loudly making me think I missed a part of the joke. “V, would you like to hear more exciting news?” I said with a huge smile as I closed my e-mail folder. “Harry Styles will stop by later?” she said sarcastically starting a fresh round of laughs in the room. “That can be arranged.” Niall teased her. “Please, somebody pinch me!” she joked. “I volunteer.” I said still laughing. “Please tell me you have some real life news you want to share. I don’t know how much longer I can be sitting casually across him without freaking out.” She joked and grabbed my hand like she was pleading. We let out a small chuckle and I couldn’t help but glance at Niall.  _God…Niall was lying on my bed and I was calmer than ever. I must be ill._  “I got accepted at the Master-Class!” I told her with a huge grin. “What! You passed! I knew it!” she yelled and turned to hug me. I spotted Niall looking at us confused. “I applied for a class, it’s like a workshop about architecture a few days ago.” I told him as I picked my almost finished beer and took a sip. “And the acceptance was based on a formal article you had to write for them in English. And I got in!” I said even more excited with any passing minute. “Congratulations!” Niall told me and I knew my day couldn’t get any better. Vicky stood up mumbling something about putting on the right kind of music that the moment demanded. “Judging from what I’ve seen today, your English is very good, of course you would be accepted.” he said sitting opposite to me and looking directly into my eyes. “Thank you…” I said and I could feel my cheeks blushing. “It was the formal part that I was anxious about.” I explained not able to look away from his eyes too. “You know… We should celebrate.” Vicky suggested from across the room. “That’s a good reason to drag me to Funky Buddha.” She said referring to a conversation we had the other day as she came back to sit with us. “A! We can ask Niall!” I said with mere excitement coloring my voice. “Niall you know this club, the Funky Buddha?” I started. “It’s somewhere in London-” I went on. “And we wanted to go in case we bumped into anyone famous… No need to do that anymore.” Vicky cut me off with mere sarcasm in her voice. “Can you please sympathize a bit with me and freak out about the fact that we are asking Niall Horan himself! In person! How to get into Funky Buddha?!” she asked pleading playfully inches away from my face. “No! I want to learn how to get in…” I told her and I could hear Niall’s laugh in the background. “Well girls, I am not sure I can help you…” he said with a tight smile. “I mean I know you can get in if you are on a list or something…but other than that… I have no idea.” He said and my face fell. “Oh, come on… ” I protested.  “If he doesn’t know, I think we are going to end in a miserable pub in best case scenario.” Vicky said absent minded. “No, we will find a way.” I said optimistically. “I’ll start with the basic steps. Google.” She said and went to her laptop. “I can ask…someone… if you want to…” Niall offered hesitantly. “I think I owe you enough favors up till now. No need to add more…” I told him with a small laugh. He laughed a bit too. “You don’t owe me anything.” He said and glanced at his phone. “I had a great time. Really. I’m glad I met you…” he said as we both stood up. “…both of you.” He added shooting a glance at Vicky. “If you are glad then I am overwhelmed!” I told him unable to hold back a huge grin. “…we both are.” I added and he smiled. Just smiled. I could look at that smile all day and it would still be like I saw it for the first time. “Well… I think it’s time I left.” He said with his hands in his pockets. “… to let you freak out and go all fangirl as much as you want…” he said teasingly rolling his eyes and pretending to be a fabulous girl who is about to faint. Loud laughs were all you could hear in our room for the next three seconds. “Although I’d prefer to have been warned, it was great having you here.” Vicky said as she hugged him goodbye. “Come I’ll take you to the elevator…No, to the lift!” I said as we both stepped outside the room laughing. “So… that was it. My day with Niall Horan!” I said eyeing him. “…it was a very good day.” I said as we reached the elevator. He gave me a smile and I felt the need to lean onto the wall. A silent minute passed with me biting my lip and him glancing between his shoes and the elevator doors. “Give me your phone.” I said as I stretched a hand towards him, surprising him and me both.  _When did I decide to do this?!_  “…the device.” I went on pulling myself away from the wall and closer to him. He took his phone out, unlocked it and gave it to me. I typed my phone and gave it back to him. “If you want to… some other time…” I said and gave him a friendly smile, crossing my arms against my chest. The elevator doors opened as he returned the smile. He glanced at his phone and then back at me. “Give boys our greetings.” I told him and turned to walk away. As soon as I took two strides I turned my head back. Our eyes crossed one more time before he went in the elevator and in headed to my room secretly smiling.


	5. Chapter 5

I heard my phone buzzing on my nightstand. I popped my head out of the bathroom dripping water everywhere. “V, did my phone ring?” I asked leaning on the bathroom door. “Yeah…” she said with a bored and annoyed voice. “You have a message. How shocking…” she said and I could see her rolling her eyes. “Read it aloud? Please?” I said as sweetly as I could while trying to wrap the towel properly around me and stop wetting everything around me. “Ha ha ha. I am in mood for dancing. Maybe I’ll get one of the boys. Any preferences. Question mark and a smiley face.” She read with no color in her voice as I walked out of the bathroom. “Em, yes! Crazy for the lady parts with no girlfriend drama.” She joked and I gave her a judging face. She stuck her tongue out at me and I took my phone off her hand grimacing. “So? You reached the 100 texts or you still have a few left?” she asked me with a suspicious smile only to tease me. “No, we didn’t reach the 100 texts.” I told her with a casual look. “Don’t you dare go all I-AM-A-COOL-GIRL on me missy…” she said with a I-know-you-better-than-anyone smile and jumped on me. We fell back on my bed as she started tickling me. “ _Yeah…I am all casual… I don’t care…whatever…_ ”she mimicked my voice while I was begging her to stop between my laughs. “Who do you think you are fooling?” she asked when I stopped laughing. “Ugh…What do you want me to say?” I asked her defeated. “To me? Nothing. I know you fancy him… A lot.” She told me as we were laid side by side on my bed. “It’s time to admit it to yourself.” She continued and I let out a big breath. “Fine. I do like him… So does half of the teenage female population of the world. Apparently, there is something attractive about him.” I told her honestly. “May I please be in the other half?” she asked me with a disgusted expression. “You are exaggerating.” I told her and we both knew I was right. “I am. But seriously, there are five hunks in front of us and you manage to pick the one that looks like my little brother.” She told me, surprised by my taste in boys. “Yeap, you got me! I’m trying to hit on your ten year old brother. That’s was all a stunt.” I told her ironically and we both burst into laughs. “Get up. We have to get ready.” I told her and pushed us both off the bed. “Hmm… And why is that?” she asked me teasingly. “Because I’m taking you out tonight baby!” I told her with a wink and we both laughed. We put on a playlist with our favorite songs and started going through our clothes.

We got out of the cab and headed to the entrance of the club. “Wait.” I told Vicky in a low voice as I stopped and grabbed her arm holding her back. She looked at me with a puzzled look. “We are going to have a great time tonight.” I told her almost like a question and she knew what I was talking about. She gave me a sweet smile and nodded. “Niall or no Niall, we came here together, this is our last night and the two of us should have the time of our lives parting like there is no tomorrow. Ok?” I told her with a smile lingering on my lips and her smile grew bigger. “The hell we will! I think you got it exactly right there sis.” she said and winked at me. I couldn’t help flushing a huge smile. “Let’s show these guys what partying is really like.” She said and grabbed me into a tight side hug. “Yeah, let’s show them how the Greeks do it all year around.” I said and winked at her. I got my best friend by the hand and we got into the club laughing and ready to not leave this place any less happy or excited than we got in.

   The place was almost full and the music was loud. I listened to the bit and took a look around.  _I could work with that_. I started to move slightly my head with the music and I spotted the bar. I glanced over at Vicky. Her expression was similar to mine and I knew she liked it too. She turned to look at me and motioned with her head to the far left back corner in the club. “Drinks before greetings?” I shouted for her to hear me. She nodded firmly. “I’m greeting no one without some alcohol in my system.” She said as we headed to the bar. We kindly took our drinks from  _a very handsome_  barman and took our first sips. I glanced over the group in the back for once more and I suddenly felt anxious. I bitted my lower lip and gave V a troubled look. “Ha! Now you are nervous!?” she said with surprise. “Get over it. He got us in, we have to at least say hi.” She told me and started walking with no second thought.  _He was eating pizza on bed and I couldn’t say a hello!? I was being ridiculous._  I shook every bit of anxiety off and followed her. I spotted Niall, as we continued making our way through the crowd. When we almost there he spotted us and flushed a huge smile. He excused himself from the crowd he was with and stepped down from where there table was. I could see his smile getting bigger with every step he took towards us. “You made it!” he shouted and hugged me. I think I was as surprised as he was by his gesture, but I hugged him back. “Yes, we did!” I said with a huge smile as we broke the hug. “Man, you… you look great!” he said look at both of us from head to toe. “Oh, thank you!” V said and I think my cheeks flushed red and I instinctively looked down. “Come… I’ll introduce you to the others.” He said and motioned for us to follow him as he made room for us through his friends without any second thought. He started introducing us to all of his friends and I was sure I wouldn’t remember any of their names apart from the last one. Harry Styles.  _Five days in this city and I got to do what half of teenage population dreams of every night…_  “Sorry we are a bit late.” I told Niall. “But you know how I am when I have to find a place…” I continued and he started laughing. _Well, I think I’m about to have a blast!_  I smiled at the thought and I could see V with the corner of my eye being in the same mood I was. I saw Harry telling something to a waiter and I took on more sip of my drink. Two minutes later there were shots for every one of us. A loud ‘Cheers’ sounded right before we all emptied our glasses.

 “I know that you can sing, but the important question is: Can you dance?” I told Niall lining close to his ear. Maybe too close? A gave him a suspicious look and he bit back a smile hesitantly. “Come… I’ll show you…” I said and grabbed his hand leading him to the dance floor. ‘We are going down’ I told Vicky quickly as I passed by her. She gave me a and-you-were-nervous-a-minute-ago-? look and I couldn’t help but smile _. There is no room for embarrassment when it comes to dancing._

   The DJ dropped one great song after the other and the drinks kept coming. I had no idea if it had been hours or minutes but our small shy movements on the dance floor were long gone by this point. I was dancing with every bit of my existence. We were all on the dance floor killing every song. He was grabbing me, I was grabbing him, no awkwardness and no hesitations. That was what partying should be like. His waist, my waist, my hands, his hands… Everything twirled around… More shots came to us and I gave Vicky a glance, who was dancing with  _Harry?!_  next to us. Counting stars started playing and I literally couldn’t control myself any more. Oh God! “I love this song!” I lined on my arms, that were resting on Niall’s shoulders, and whispered in his ear as we continued to move with the music. Our movement made me brush my lips over his ear. He didn’t seem to mind. “I think you love  _every_  song!” he said brushing his fingers over my ear lobe. I had no idea if my head was feeling tipsy from the countless shots or his fingers running over my flesh. I let out a laugh and he managed to tag me even closer to his body. My legs were tangled with his and his hands traveled all over my back as we danced with the music. I mimicked his actions and shyly tried to move my hands a bit lower. Our eyes locked and he smoothly grabbed my butt with one hand while the other was behind my torso. The whole club was dancing and I couldn’t take my eyes from his eyes. He pulled my body on to his with a tight hold and was unable to react any more. Our heads were inches apart. I could feel his breath as my eyes traveled from his eyes to his lips. I titled my head a bit hesitant to go further.  _What if he doesn’t want to be seen?_ I managed to think through the alcohol that was hazing my brain. He closed the small distance between us and our lips met before I could think anything else. Our lips locked and I didn’t want to dance anymore. I titled my head a bit more and tried to deepen the kiss. He pulled back before I got to do much and I think disappointment was clear in my eyes. I started dancing again as much as I could with him still holding me in his arms. I closed my eyes and concentrated on the music rather than what I felt lightly pressing against me, right above my thighs. I turned in his arms with a vindictive thought crossing my mind. I knew what my strong body part was and I was about to use that leverage. I started dancing again, more freely this time with him on my back. My butt brushed against him and I slowly took a small step forward pretending it was part of my dancing. Half a minute later he grabbed me again and my back was pinned on his torso. “If you want to go, just ask.” He whispered brushing his nose next to my ear. I turned to look at him biting my lip. I didn’t remember if I told him anything or what my face looked like at the moment, but apparently it was all he needed to see there.    


	6. Chapter 6

I could feel the sun peering through the curtains. I knew it was time to get up but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. I rubbed my nose against the pillow and tried to drift back into deep slumber. A few seconds later, that felt like hours in my sleepy state of mind, I was aware of my surroundings again. There was something bothering me. I couldn’t place my finger on it so I tried not to open my eyes and go back to my dreams. Unfortunately it happened again. With any passing minute the sound became clearer. Something was ringing. Oh God… Make it stop! I want to sleep! I thought and made an attempt to move. I’ll make it stop and then back to sweet dreams. I tried to pick up my torso but I couldn’t feel one of my hands. I pushed whatever was blocking my movement and tried to find what I now knew was my cell ringing over and over again. I managed to slightly open my eyelids, or maybe one of them. I had now idea at the moment and no energy to worry about it. I searched what looked like a nightstand next to me for my phone. No luck there. I could hear it very clearly at this point and I knew it was somewhere near. I slid to the side of the bed noticing that my head was very heavy and my legs were tangled with what I presumed were other legs?! Again I had no energy about this. My phone, I have to find my phone. I thought and searched the floor for the disturbing device. I founded it a second latter and brought it closer to my face, trying to push the correct corner of my touch screen. “hmmm” I said as soon as I answered it and I felt someone fidgeting next to me. “Helen?” the voice came loud and clear through my device. “mmm” I said in agreement. That’s Vicky and she is on speaker… Make it quick V my head hurts. I thought but couldn’t say it. My head was already back on the pillow and my phone was next to my nose. “Are you asleep?” I heard her asking and the body next to me moved more “yes” I said affirmatively feeling the body under my left arm turning towards me. “Wake up and call me.” She said and hung up. Yeah…I will… I pushed my phone away and tried to get more comfortable in the sheets. I moved a bit but instead of the sheets I think I managed to rest half of my body on another body.Before I had the chance to ponder on it, the body started moving. My eyes refused to follow my commands and open up and I had no idea if the person next to me was pulling me closer or moving away. Great… I rubbed my face with my left hand trying and managed to open my eyes. My eyes hurt and so did my head. I glanced around. I was in a hotel room and it wasn’t mine. Great… I turned to face to the fidgeting and probably awake body next to me. He looked back at me rubbing his own eyes too. “I think someone is looking for you…” Niall said, his face inches of mine. I shook my head in agreement is I fluttered slowly my eyelids, fighting their urge to close again. A silent second passed as I felt Niall’s hand moving up and down my back slowly. His stomach growled and I let out a small laugh. “I am hungry as well.” I said amused, placing my palm on his abdomen. He let out a small laugh and I titled my head causing our eyes to lock. “Room service?” he asked and I nodded in agreement. He turned his body in order to reach the room-phone. I slowly got up in sitting position next to him. With one hand on the phone and the other tracing my spine, he begun ordering. “May I use your bathroom?” I asked him and turned my head trying to face him, but I physically couldn’t complete the task. I rested my chin on my shoulder and saw him with the corner of my eye pointing to where the bathroom probably was. I pushed the sheets away and slowly got out of the bed. I picked up some of my clothes and walked into the bathroom, feeling self-conscious since I was completely naked and I could feel Niall eyes glued to my butt. Let’s hope my squats won’t let me down… The hot shower worked its magic on my body and I was feeling close to normal again. I cleaned my face as much as I could, got dressed and headed to the living room. “Hey…” I said to a half-naked Niall who was walking towards the table with what I hopped was coffee. “Hey! Breakfast is here!” he said with excitement and a huge smile. “…If I only had half of your energy…” I shook my head and sat in a chair close to the table. “Please tell me have some aspiri-” I began to say but I was caught midsentence by Niall’s hand holding out two aspirin pills for me. “I could do, what I did last night, all over again just to thank you for that…” I teased him as I swallowed the two pills. We both smiled at my comment and I think I saw his cheeks turn a bit pink. “So you weren’t that drunk… you remember?” he said shyly looking at his plate. “No, I was that drunk! But I think I remember most of it…” I said as I took a bit of my croissant, trying not to blush with what I had just said. An almost awkward silence spread as we both went on eating our breakfast. “Sorry if my phone woke you up today.” I said casually not wanting to stretch the silent moment any longer. “It’s no big deal, I was half awake.” He said between bites. “I was too hungry to stay asleep. It was ringing long before you picked it up.” he continued. “Oh, I’m sorry… Mornings are not my thing, at all! If I was at my place I would be probably still asleep.” I confessed and he raised his eyebrows impressed. “Yeah…” I admitted with a tight guilty smile. “Any way, it’s better that Vicky called. I don’t have much time to spare.” I said and took one more sip of my hot coffee. “She is probably a bit worried.” He said and I gave him a troubled look. “I didn’t tell her I was leaving the club with you last night, did I?” I said biting my lower lip concerned. “I am almost sure you didn’t.” he said trying to remember what exactly I did last night. “She knows I am alive now, so no worries there.” I said putting my cup on the table. “I’ll probably see her in a while…” I told him and I could see his face fell a little. “What time are you leaving?” he asked casually. “Six.” I told him simply. “I think I merely have time to pack my things…” I said with a concerned smile and started to get up. I turned and looked around at the room. I saw my coat lying next to the front door. “I should start picking up my stuff…” I said still looking around “It’ll take me a while in this small room.” I said with irony in my voice. He laughed at my phrase and got up to check his phone. “I think I should get dressed too.” He said as I went on picking all my stuff. In a few minutes I was fully dressed, and I went back to the living room. “So, now is the moment that you give me the celebrity 101? How do I get out of here?” I asked playfully with a smile. He let out a chuckle at my question. “As much as I hate to, I think I have to.” He said with half a smile. “I am all ears.” I said and sat at the arm of the sofa. “You take the lift you’ll find on the right.” he started saying and pointed to where I should be going. “0 is the lobby. There will be Paul waiting to take you to your hotel.” He went on. “No, there is no need to. I’ll take a cab.” I said back glancing at clock on my phone. “I could just lie and tell you it’s mandatory to do so but I won’t.” He told me with what I guessed was his almost angry face. “I’m not buying you a limo. It’s just a ride home…” He went on but he knew I wasn’t convinced. “It’s a goodbye gift.” He said in firm voice. “Ok, ok…I’ll take it.” I blurred out not wanting him mad at me. “Good.” He said content. “I guess that’s all.” he said with a hint of sadness in his voice. I shook my head affirmatively and got up. I picked up my coat and headed to the door with him following me. “Well… I’m really glad you called yesterday… and as far as I am concerned I won’t let any of this reach any… ears.” I said with a smile and he made a face. “You are free to do as you please…” he said and it was clear what he meant. “I’m not a kid.” I said longing him in the eyes. “I had a great time and there is no reason to ruin that over 10 secs of publicity” I continued with a warm smile. “I had a great time too.” He said with a grateful expresion and our eyes locked for once more. “So, I guess… Good luck with whatever you do… I am sure I’ll see you in some magazine or on tv show soon…” I told him and he flushed me a warm smile. “I hope you hear from me sooner than that.” He said back and I smiled in contempt. “I’d really like that.” I told him and smiled even wider. “Me too.” He agreed and turned to open the door for me. I looked at him and bit my lower lip. I didn’t what else to say so I just nodded with my head and exited his room. He watched me heading to the elevator, lying with his back on his door frame. Before I got in, I turned and gave him a warm smile. He smiled back at me and I hoped it wasn’t the last Niall smile I got to see.


	7. Chapter 7

“The longitudinal reinforcement is placed along this dimension…” the professor went on and I continued scrolling down on my phone.  _That’s exactly what people mean when they say, ‘I could die from boredom’_. I was waiting for my Tumblr dashboard to load when new text notification popped on the screen of my phone. ‘From: Niall Horan’ the screen said and I pressed to open it. ‘U in class? Can u talk?’ I read it and took a glance around the auditorium. I glanced at my clock, it was five to twelve. ‘Stupid engineering class [no offence :P] Call me in 5’ I texted back and I was even more anxious for this class to be over. “…and you’ll find the rest in page 165 …” the professor said and my phone started nudging. ‘Incoming call: Niall Horan’ I read on my screen. _Shoot!_  I glanced at the clock. It was twelve o’clock. I picked my stuff and started walking towards the exit. “Yes?” I said with sort breath as I tried to balance my phone on my shoulder and put all my books in my bag. “Hi! You are still in class?” Niall asked me and I could tell he was excited about something. “No, we just finished. So! What’s up? You sound excited…” I asked him cheerfully as I exited the university building. “I am! But I’ll tell you  _in person_!” he said and I could hear his smile through the line. “Rephrase, cause I think I understood something different than what you meant by that.” I said not sure of what he was talking about. “Mmm… That depends. Did you understand that Paul and I are currently parked at the right edge of the Seine. Or is it the left Paul?…We have no idea.” He said and I froze on my steps. “You are kidding me, right?” I asked completely taken by surprise. “Nop!” he simply answered and I felt the urge to scream. “No! You didn’t just say that!…Ah!… you Irish… ah!” I couldn’t find a word that suited him and wasn’t flattering at the same time. “And you couldn’t mention this yesterday or the day before! You know I’ll hit you the moment I see you…” I told him teasingly and headed to my little old Vespa. He heard his laugh loud and clear in the other end of the line. “The moment you see me…” he repeated my words still laughing a bit. “The minute I see you!” I told him back making a lost effort not to sound over the moon about this. “A! That depends on how fast you can came to a black jeep parked next to this fancy green bridge…” he said his excitement was even clearer now. “God, you are unbelievable!” I told him and hopped on my vehicle. “I suppose I am!” he said with a chuckle and I sighed in disbelief. “There are probably a hundred green bridges in Paris Niall. Were exactly you are?” I asked and I had a huge smile glued on my face at this point. He told me where exactly he was parked and I started driving towards them.

   It wasn’t too long since we hung up that I spotted his black jeep. I parked my Vespa a few meters away. I fixed my hair with one of my hands, put my sunglasses on place and walked towards his car. I came to stand outside the back seat window and knocked on it gently. The window lowered and a smiling Niall appeared. “Er… Sorry to bother you sir, I’m looking for a  _big celebrity,_ he is supposed to be in disguise and probably surrounded by screaming girls…” I told him pretending I didn’t recognize him. “Ah…sorry mam… I haven’t seen any celebrities around here… Have you seen anyone famous Paul?” he asked the man in the drivers seat joking. He waved no with his head. “Nah… We only have a fake blond guy how thinks he can sing.” Paul said and I laughed at Niall’s face as he agreed with his comment. “Well then… I guess I’ll have to work with what you have…” I said teasingly and he laughed a bit with my phrase. “Get your butt out  _rock star…_ so I can give you a proper welcome…” I told him with a smile and moved away from his door. He got out looking like a toddler that was promised a huge candy bar. He opened his arms and welcomed me into the typical Niall hug. I turned and pinched his arm slightly, when we broke out from our hug. “Hey!” he said in protest. “That’s for not telling me in advance that you were visiting.” I told him with a firm look, but he just laughed at me. “I wanted it to be a surprise!” he said smiling innocently at me. “You know very well that I don’t buy that, but I’ll let it go this time…” I said eyeing him with the corner of my eye. He nodded his head and flushed me a perfect smile making me shake my head in disbelief. _What am I gonna do with you…?_ I turned and popped my head through the still open back window. “Er… Kind sir, would you mind if I take this boy off your back for a while?” I asked Paul and he let out a small laugh. “Please, be my guest!” he said faking a relived expression at me. We all laughed at this and I turned to Niall. “Come on rock star we change vehicles…” I told him sarcastically. “So that my screaming girls lose track of me…” he said and we started laughing. “Yeah, I’m trying to kidnap you. And I can since I’m the taller one!” I said and around of too loud laughs started. “Actually, I think you got even taller.” He teased me, with a huge smile spread on his face. “I didn’t. Girl trick!” I winked at him and gestured to my medium heel ankle boots as I stopped in front of my Vespa. “You like it?” I asked admiring my little motorbike. “It’s exactly the way you described it.” he said examining my old vehicle. “I hope that was a compliment…” I told him with a skeptical look. “It was!” he said with a chuckle. “Cause otherwise you are following me on foot.” I teased him and got one more helmet out from the back of the Vespa. “Are you kidding?! I am _mesmerized_!” he said wide eyed, mimicking a shocked expression. I started laughing and he continued to pull funny surprised faces at me. I shook my head to make him stop and handed him the second helmet. “Put it on…” I told him as I put on mine. “Giiirl… It will ruin my hair…” he fake poutted as he put it on. “It’s for disguise, not safety…” I joked and we both laughed. “Someone is in a good mood today! Climb on.” I went on with a smile as I started the engine. He didn’t need to respond to that, his smile told me everything I wanted to know at the moment. “Ok. Quick stop for a bite and then coffee with great view?” I turned to ask him. “You couldn’t have said anything more appealing to me than that.” He agreed and I cracked him a smile.  _Oh, I could have made a better offer dear…but it’ll have to wait._ I thought and I started heading to the best delicatessen in town.

   There was barely any traffic and I decided to make a quick circle so that we could pass by some more monuments. It wasn’t probably my best decision. Niall was fidgeting behind me trying to get a better view of whatever we passed by making me struggling to keep us on balance. “Niall! Stop fidgeting!” I shouted for him to hear me. “What?” he asked back, not able to hear me. “Stop moving!” I said again and I could tell he was a bit confused. “Grab my waist and look ahead!” I said one more time trying not to get us killed. He hesitated a bit and then wrapped his arms around me. “Ok now?” he asked and nodded in agreement as we passed by the Arch de triumph. The rest of the ride was easy and we quickly reached the food place I had promised him. I parked in front and killed the engine noticing that he wasn’t loosening his grip on me. “You can get off now…” I said patting his arms a bit, amused by his behavior. “Are you sure?” he asked me back, making it unable to move for me and him both. “Yes…” I said not angry at all. He slowly took his hands away from me and we got off the bike. He gave me a shy look as we took off our helmets. “Sorry…” he said with a tight smile like I had caught him with his hand in the cookie jar. “I’m sorry too I yelled at you…” I said back as politely as I could, feeling a bit bad about it. “… but I was thinking about all those girls that would commit suicide if they found out something happened to you…” I joked and he loosened up a bit. “…come on  _Horan_  I’m buying you the best Parisian pizza you ever tasted.” I said and rubbed my left arm on his to make him forget the bike incident. “Parisian pizza!?” he said and I knew it was all in the past. “Yeap! Authentic Italian pizza inside the best French baguette you ever had! It’s dreamy believe me!” I told him and he eyes got wider. I could see him getting more eager to taste it with any passing minute. “Salut, Jullien!” I greeted the old man behind the counter when we got in. “Helen! Comment ça va mon cheri?” the man said back with a polite smile. “Très bien, merci… Jullien, on meurt de faim!” I joked and he kindly took our orders immediately. Niall was sitting on my Vespa and I was standing opposite of him. “So? Did I do good? You like it?” I asked as we both ate our baguettes. Niall shook his head licking his lips. “I think I am in heaven.” He said and I let a chuckle escape. “No, seriously I could move here only for this.” He went on taking one more huge bite. “I am sure you would!” I teased him and he gave me a crooked smile. A few minutes later I had finished my baguette and he had finished two. “Is there any room left for coffee and desert?” I asked him suspiciously. “Have we ever met?! Of course there is!” he told me surprised by my question. “Pretend I didn’t just ask that.” I said teasingly and he nodded affirmatively at me. “You ready to get back on or the earlier experience was too traumatizing?” I asked him with a playful grin. He didn’t answer. He gave me a weird not angry smile and put his helmet on. “Ok…” I said smiling fondly at him. “Motorcycle co-riding 101?” I started saying hesitantly, smiling at him. He nodded with his head and I went on. “On the road, your body and mine have to move like they’re one. That way I can control our weight and maintain us in balance…and alive.” I said and he smiled. “Got it boss.” he said, flushed me a smile and hopped on the Vespa. “Perfect!” I said and started the engine. He grabbed my waist and we headed to my favorite coffee shop. We soon had our coffees and little deserts in our hands and were walking through the narrow streets of Paris. “Where are we going?” Niall asked as we started climbing a big staircase. “To my favorite place in this town. It’s not far from here and is very quiet.” I answered. “It’s something like a park, but it’s on a…rooftop let’s say.” I went on and he let out a small laugh. “A park?!…so unique of you…” he said sarcastically. “What’s with you and the parks…?” he asked and I was a bit embarrassed. “I don’t know…” I said timidly. “If you don’t like it, we can go somewhere else…” I offered him quickly. “No, I didn’t mean it that way…” he said giving me an apologetic look. “I want to see where you spend your time every day. It’s just funny…” he said and I was paying more attention to his eyes than his words. Please don’t put those sunglasses on. “…we had pizza, coffee and we are visiting a park… What’s next? Me meeting your roommate?” he continued and we both laughed with our meeting pattern. In a few minutes we reached the park. The weather was pretty good and there were more people than I’d thought, but still it wasn’t too crowded. We slowly walked the far end near some kind of a big balcony. I turned to look at Niall but he was so focused on the view that he kept going straight ahead. “So, I’ll guess that you like it…” I said as we were both standing in front of the black metallic bars and the city of Paris was spreading underneath us. “This is sick…” he said mesmerized by the view. “ I’ve been here so many times and it’s the first time I get to see this.” He said wide eyed and turned to look at me. “You’ve never been here with me…” I said eyeing him playfully. “You have a point…” he said with a small chuckle. “I’m really glad you came. How long are you staying?” I said with a smile and took a sip from my coffee. “I don’t know yet. I decided I was coming two days ago. You should have seen Paul’s face when I told him…” he said and mimicked Paul’s shocked expression. I laughed at his grimace. “We have some days before the next show and everyone took off for vacation, so… I thought I could come by… to say hi.” He said and I could feel my cheeks turning in a shade of red. “You know you are always more than welcome…” I said and looked at him. “I know…” he said and I felt a strange urge to stare at his lips.  _No, don’t stare…_  I bit my lip and started talking again. “So in which hotel are you staying?” I asked him to distract myself. “I… I haven’t picked-” he started to say hesitantly when he was cut off by someone shouting  _my name?!_  “Hélène!” a clear man voice said again closer to us this time and I turned my head to see who it was. “Oh mon dieu! Jacques!” I said loudly as I was grabbed by a tall young man into a tight hug. “Mais… Qu’est ce que tu fais ici?!” I asked surprised as I hugged him back. “C’est Vendredi, n’est-ce pas?” he told me and I shook my head in agreement remembering why he was in the park. “Let me introduce you.” I said with a huge smile. “Jacques, this is Niall. Niall this is Jacques, a  _very_  talented Parisian street artist.” I said standing next to Jacques and smiling at him fondly. “Who I haven’t seen for too long…” I went on crossing my arms on my chest as they shook hands. “I’m sorry but art comes first. Am I right?” he told Niall while eyeing me apologetically. Niall shoved a sympathetic smile that looked too forced to me at the point. I didn’t ponder on it. “Yeah, your art… his art… I’ll probably have to invent imaginary friends go out with from now on…” I told them teasingly and Jacque laughed.  _Niall didn’t laugh? Is he ok?_  “Make sure they are not artists too.” Jacques joked and I pretended I was offended. “Oh cherie…I’ll take you out whenever you want!” he continued and grabbed me tightly by the waist. I laughed trapped in his arms and noticed with the corner of my eye Niall, who was awkwardly smiling. “In fact, I’ll come by your house today.” Jacque told me and I gave him a confused look. “I still have my books at your place…” he trailed off with pleading eyes. “Oh! I had forgotten! Your philosophy books… Yes, come by any time…” I told him as soon as I remembered what he was talking about. “Ok, I’ll come by later. I have to run now.” He said and extended his hand to Niall. “Nice to meet you.” He told him and Niall gave him a tight smile.  _What was wrong with him?!_  “À bientôt!” he told me and gave me a kiss on the cheek. “Bye…” I told him with a smile as he walked away. “I am sure he just ditched us to go paint one more painting…” I said joking still taking my eyes from the man walking away to the one next to me. “Is he a painter?” Niall asked hesitantly.  _Oh now you can talk, huh?!_ “Yeah. And he is pretty good at whatever he does. Half of my flat is filled with his work.” I told him casually. “You have a big place here?” Niall asked me and our discussion started to going back to our normal and  _not to our awkward._ “No, not at all. But I have it all to myself and I really like it.” I told him honestly. “A… no roommate this time?” he said and I cracked him a smile. “No, not this time.” I said and my smile got bigger. “You could come if you want to. What time do I have to take you back to Paul?” I asked him, finally making him let out a small chuckle. “Not any time soon if you want him to like you…” he said and I wasn’t sure if was making Paul a favor or Niall by not taking him back to his car. “Ok then, as soon as you finish your coffee we are ready to go.” I told him and met his contend eyes.

   “And this is my little palace…” I said as I unlocked the door and let me and Niall in my small apartment. He left his back pack on the couch and I hung my coat next to the door. Niall’s phone started ringing again and pushed the power bottom of my laptop. I saw with the corner of my eye that he didn’t answer it and I began to give him a tour of my place.


	8. Chapter 8

“Living-room, kitchen…” I said guiding him through. “Bathroom, bedroom… and last but not least…” I said opening the last door in the small corridor. “My little atelier…” I said and flipped the switch on. The room was full with 3D models for the uni and other stuff I did in my free time. He got in hesitantly and started observing everything in the room. “These are amazing!” he told me still looking around. He picked up a small abstract paper airplane I had made months ago and examined it. “I saw it in a store and wanted to make it on my own.” I explained to him. “It’s really good.” He said still examining the little thing. “You can have it.” I told him with a soft voice and went to stand next to him. He turned to look at me and our eyes locked. “No, you put so much effort in it…” he said and looked at me hesitantly. “You can have it.” I told him again still looking at his eyes. He put the miniature in his palm and let his arm fall in his side. “Thanks.” He said and I noticed our heads were too close at this point; my eyes still in his. “It’s not a real airplane.” I said with a hint of a joke. My voice was low and I could feel his breath on my cheeks. “It’s the best one I’ve seen.” He said and his eyes traveled slowly to my lips. We both hesitated for a second and then we closed the small distance between us. Our lips met and although it wasn’t the first time I could feel my heart start beating faster. I didn’t know if it was the absence of alcohol but this time seamed different to me. It was a small tender kiss and I was already overwhelmed. Our lips parted for a split second and before I could clear my head his left arm was grabbing my waist and we were kissing again. His lips were less tender this time and so were mine. I brought one of my hands on the back of his neck and deepened the kiss even more when I felt something buzzing on my thigh. I couldn’t help but laugh and so did he. “Not that it’s a bad thing, but you should probably get that.” I said with a chuckle as he pulled the phone out of his pocket smiling too. I thought I saw ‘Liam’ written on his screen before he took a step away from me. “Yeah man…” he said as we exited the room and head to the living room. Niall was babbling on his phone and I took to my laptop and sat on the sofa. I opened my skype as usual and started going through my notifications as he came to back to the living room. “Everything ok?” I asked him and lifted my head up to look at him. “Yeah.” He said, but his face didn’t much his expression. “Good. Vicky says hi.” I told him casually as I turned back to my laptop. “…and she wants me to check my twitter…” I said questioning her suggestion in my head. He made a gesture to protest when I cut him off. “Aaa… you are trending!” I told him with my eyes fixed on the screen. “I know.” He whispered and I think there was a sad tone in his voice. “I wonder what they got on you today…” I said with a chuckle. “Well, it’s nothing. You don’t have to…” he said quickly and abruptly came closer to me. “No, I want to…” I trailed off absentminded as he was rushing towards were I was. “Oh…” I said when I saw the first photo that appeared and he stopped a couple steps away. I turned my eyes at him and then back at the screen. He was anxious and I was taken by surprise. Neither of us knew what to say. I bit my lip as I glanced at my screen again. “Apparently…  _we_  are trending.” I said as I kept scrolling down and the atmosphere in my living room was officially _tense_. He was looking at my face, but I was avoiding his. It was obvious that our little trip hadn’t gone unnoticed. There might not be _paps_  in Paris, but there were fans with smart-phones.

   They had taken plenty of photos of us and there were even more elaborate notes about what we’ve been doing. I was officially an unknown brunette ‘ _possibly Niall Horan’s new girlfriend_ ’. The words Niall, Paris, girlfriend, brunette and rendezvous were included in almost every tweet.  _Why couldn’t you also tweet what the hell I am supposed to say in this case?_ I kept my eyes on my screen and Niall was fidgeting close to me. “Great.” he said ironically and sat in a chair close to me. He let a breath out and titled his head back. “And now …you are angry…” He said in a low voice. “I’m not.” I said but my tone didn’t fool him. He stayed silent.  “That’s why your phone is busing like crazy for the past ten minutes?” I asked looking at him. He shook his head lightly not meeting my eyes. A silent minute passed and I got up heading to the kitchen. He let out one more breath and I could feel his eyes tracing my every movement as I purred myself a glass of water. “Great! Just great.” He said again and I had to snap my mind out of that haze and try to function like a normal person. “If you have to take another call… well, you can…” I started a sentence I didn’t know how to finish. As if he sensed it he cut me off. “I don’t want to take any calls now.” He said with a very firm voice. “I know you are not ok about this…” he said with sadness in his voice. I titled my head and didn’t say anything. I didn’t say anything, just looked at him. I didn’t want to lie, I wasn’t ok about this. “Fuck. I knew this would happen.” he said taking me by surprise. “Sorry. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to swear…” he went on like he was in some kind of frenzy. “It’s fine…” I said with a bit surprised by all this when my doorbell rang. _Wrong timing Jacques._  I thought and by his expression I was sure Niall was thinking the exact same thing. I opened the door and let Jacque in. “I’ll be back in a sec.” I said and went to get his books. “So, she said you are an artist…” I could hear Jacque opening small talk with Niall. “Yeah, I am… musician.” Niall answered hesitantly.  _Worst timing ever Jacques!_  I thought as approached them with the books in my hands. I handed them to him and sat at the sofa next to him. “So…What you have planned for tonight?” Jacques asked and gave me a wink. I smiled politely and could sense Niall fidgeting nervously in his seatt. “Nothing …” I answered and looked at Niall. “Great cause a friend is having a party. It will be fun, Hélène!” he said and winked at me playfully again. Niall abruptly stood up and headed nervously to the kitchen.  _Ok if he winks one more Niall will probably hit him or my fridge._ “Ok. We will see about it.” I said firmly and stood up from the couch. “I will call you later ok?” I said to Jacques as I patted him gently on the shoulder. I was smiling politely but my body language told him that it was time for him to leave. Thankfully he pick up on it quickly/imidiatly. “Ok…” he said with a questioning look as he started to get up. “I hope I see you tonight.” He said and opened the door for him. We said a quick ‘bye’ and Niall waved at him with a forced smile. “You should go to the party. It sounded fine.” He told me, with his eyes glued to his shoes and his arms crossed on his chest. I turned my head away from him and bit my lip angrily. I tried to calm myself a bit before I answered to him. “He invited us both.” I said in a clear and very firm tone. He shook his head like he knew better than me what Jacque meant. “Believe me, I’m a guy I know guy-talk… I should go…” he said and approached the couch to get his bag. “So apparently you don’t know how the _‘he invited us both’_  translates in girl-talk.” I said and my voice was a bit louder than what I had planned. He stopped and turned to look at me. I gave him a stern look he gave back a defeated look and started to pick his stuff again. “I shouldn’t have come like that. You have a life after all.” he said and I was officially pissed now. “You bet I do.” I said and it was clear that he pissed me off for good now. “And so do you! But I’m not all grumpy about it, and I don’t take it out on you.” I said and motioned towards him. I took a step and stood in front of him. He knew I was pissed and there was no way he would get the easy treatment out of this. “I know you haven’t booked a hotel, and you are not that eager to go back to Paul. So cut the crap and tell me where do you think you are going.” I asked and he knew I wasn’t joking. “Home…” he said in an almost ashamed voice. “Fuck Liam! Why you had to call?” he whispered and I snapped. “Enough!” I told him. “This isn’t Liam’s fault. And if you don’t spill now why the hell you want to leave, it won’t be my fault either if you end up beat up in a hospital bed.” I said and I swear he believed me for a moment. He took a long breath and turned to look away from me. “You are pissed about the twitter thing, and probably want to kill all my fans and this point… And you have every right to… I mean it’s your life and I can’t show up and do whatever I want and mess up everything. You are right to be pissed and I am sorry, I’ll leave and won’t mess this up any more…” he said and I shook my head in disbelief. “God… you have no brains in your head, do you?” I asked not believing what I had just heard. He didn’t say anything and I took a deep breath. “You came to Paris only to see me. I am very aware of that.” I said and he blushed a bit. “And you should be aware that I am over the moon about it.” I told him and my voice was back to its normal tone. “So, forget Jacques and twitter and Liam and whatever is going through that head.” I said less pissed now and I could see he was less pissed too. “I’m going to take a shower and give you some privacy, and you are going to answer that damn phone and get rid off whatever is bothering you…Cause when I get back I want to finish what Liam interrupted…” I said and cracked him a smile. He smiled a bit too and waved a yes with his head. “Good.” I said simply and winked at him. We both let out a small laugh as I started walking towards the bathroom. I glanced at him one more time above my shoulder and started to take my clothes off as he started talking to his phone.

   The hot water was running down my body as Bruno Mars was playing on the radio. I had already forgotten everything that had happened before. I was trying to rinse the shampoo off my hair when a familiar voice filled my bathroom. ‘ _Lately I found myself thinking_ ’ Liam started singing and I couldn’t help but laugh with the irony of the moment. I opened the shower curtain a bit to grab my face scrub when I heard the bathroom door close. I turned to look at a smiling Niall staring at my mini radio. “So you have a habit of taking baths with all five of us, huh?” Niall joked and turned to crack me a sweet smile. “All of them might be here, but only one of them that get to see what’s behind the curtain.” I told him and cracked a smile at him too. There wasn’t any need to tell him anything more. He undressed quickly and started singing along the radio as he got in the bathtub with me. “Let them do the singing…” I said with a seductive smile and pressed my lips on to his. He grabbed my waist and placed us both under the hot water.

   Half an hour later there was no more hot water in the shower and we were both laid on my bed. He was relaxing against my pillows and half of my body was resting on him while I was still tangled in my sheets. He was humming some kind of melody while tracing patterns with his fingertips on my back. I let out a small chuckle. “What?” he asked amused by my reaction to his humming. “Nothing… I remembered poor Liam. You didn’t yell at him, did you?” I said and titled my head to look at him. He let out a small laugh too. “No, I didn’t.” he said and brushed his thumb against my cheek. “Good. Cause I would feel bad for him otherwise.” I told him honestly. “Don’t worry they don’t get offended that easily.” He reassured me. “Still… And now that I remembered it… I don’t hate your fans.” I told him, but it was clear he wasn’t convinced. “Really, I don’t. We’ve all been in their shoes at some point. Don’t even let me start on how much of a fan-girl I was over Robert Pattinson and Twilight…” I confessed and he laughed with me. “The vampire fandom?!” he asked between his laughs. “Stop it! That was a confession, you should cherish it!” I told him and rested my head next to his. “Well if that fandom could measure up to yours. I mean they are more than fans now. I don’t know even how this even possible… They are like…” I struggled to really describe what I had in my mind. “I mean they can certainly go crazy, but they… If you tweeted to them now, to go find me and chop my head off, tomorrow morning my head would be in your front door. I know it sounds creepy but the truth is they have your back, no matter what. I only wish I had someone looking out for me twenty four – seven…” I explained and he continued looking at my eyes. “So you get them.” He said and pulled me closer to him with his right arm. “I do.” I replied and smiled at him. “Even if they start hating you?” he asked eyeing me teasingly. “Ha! You should have seen the hate I gave Kristen Stewart!” I told him and laughed a bit as I remembered what I had done not so many years ago. “So you weren’t pissed today?” he asked with a smile on his face. “I was shocked.” I admitted. “Did you know, I am officially an unknown brunette!?” I said pretending like it was a new great discovery for the 21th century. He laughed and waved a ‘No’ with his head. “How did you come to know so much about my fans?” he asked and I gave him a warm smile. “I’m not the same girl I was in that coffee shop.” I told him but he didn’t believe me at all. “I know more than you can imagine, about you… and the boys now!” I added but he still eyed me suspiciously. “I know you’re a  _Nialler_. Your favorite color is green. You have bad knees, just like me. You had a crush on Demi Lovato, you once tweeted a picture of you  _extremely_  excited down there and you are captain in a ship with _too_  many followers.” I told him and he closed his eyes not believing I really knew all these stuff. “You really did your homework…” he joked and I nodded in voluntary at him. He laughed and buried his head in my neck. He kissed tenderly my collarbone and leaved a line of kisses until he reached my cheek. With his lips next to mine I turned my head and closed the small distance between them. “You know we can’t stay in bed all day…” I said between our kisses. “That’s debatable…” he said as he left more kisses on my neck and I knew the majority of his stay here would be spend indoors… 


	9. Chapter 9

I let out a long exhausted breath and gave it one more try. Every inch of my desk was filled with open books but I couldn’t concentrate. I’ve been reading the same page for the past fifteen minutes and still not remembering what it was about.  _Come on…it can’t be that hard._ I made on more attempt to start over when my phone started buzzing somewhere under all these books. I glanced at the screen surprised. It was an unknown number.  _Is that code even in France?_ “Allô?” I answered my phone confused and curious at the same time. “Emmm… Is this Helen?” a male voice asked me from the other end of the line.  _English?_ “Yes, this is she…” I said even more confused. “Oh, good. Em…hi, this is Harry Styles.” He said and I went into complete shock.  _What?! Why on earth would Harry Styles call me on my cell?!_ “Em…ok…Nice to hear you…I guess…” I said clearly not having the slightest idea of what was going on. “I’m sorry if I’m bothering you. You have a minute?” He went on. “It’s fine, you are not bothering…Sorry, but where did you get my number?” I said not able to hold back the question. “Oh, I got it from Niall’s phone, but he doesn’t know.” He went on confusing me even more. “Is everything ok?” I started to get a bit scared at this point.  _Did I do something?_ “Kind of. Please don’t tell him I called you.” He said and I was anxious of what would follow that sentence. “Listen, is there any chance you could come by the arena we are performing tonight? And I’ll explain it all in person.” He went on and I at that point I was utterly clueless of what was happening. I knew they were performing in Paris tonight, but why would he want me to go there so early. “Yeah… I could be there in fifteen minutes. Should I be worried?” I told him half-joking glancing at my watch. “Emm…No,no. Just when you get here go to the back entrance and ask to see Paul.” He told me like he was in a hurry. “Ok. I’ll be there in fifteen.” I said and we both hung up.

I arrived to the arena only to find a huge line of fans waiting at the front entrance. I drove past them and parked my Vespa close to the back entrance. I took my helmet in my hand and walked toward the two guards. “Er…hi.” I greeted them hesitantly. “Do you know where I could find Mister Paul?” I asked them turning red from embarrassment.  _What the hell was I doing!?_ “What’s your name Miss?” one of the guards asked me politely. “Helen.” I replied him and he started talking to his radio. “Follow me please.” The guard said half a second latter and I did exactly as I was told. After we passed through several corridors we were in front of the main stage. I was observing the huge space when I spotted Harry walking towards me.  _Ladies and gentlemen it’s Harry Styles!_  I gave him a smile. “Mister Paul.” He said teasingly a few strides away from me. “I was trying to be polite…” I said and he smiled at my expression. “Nice to see you.” He said extending his hand at me. “Nice to see you too… again.” I said and shook his hand. “So…you’ll tell me what happened?” I said and turned to leave my stuff in an empty chair next to me. “Well it’s a bit awkward…” he admitted shyly. “Did I do something?” I asked a bit nervous. “No. I don’t think so at least.” He told me and I was clearly more than confused. “Ok, listen. I need your help with something. It’s about Niall.” He went on and I started to freak out. “Is he ok?” I asked with concern. “He is physically ok, but he’s not himself lately. He acts out, he loses rehearsals… there is something going on but we have no clue what it is and he doesn’t talk to us. To any of us!” He explained and I stayed silent. “I know I have no right to, but I have to ask. Did something happen… you know…between you two?” he asked hesitantly and I gave him a shocked expression. “Ok…didn’t see that coming…” I said almost to myself raising my eyebrows in disbelief. “I am sorry. I really am. And honestly I am not accusing you of anything. Really. I’m just trying to fix this.” He said and glanced at someone coming from the back of the stage. “Hi.” He greeted us with a polite smile. “Helen this is Louis.” Harry said and I waved my hand at the other boy. “Any progress?” Harry asked “No, he is still in his dressing room.” Louis replied shaking his head. Harry run a hand through his hair. “Ok.” I said and stood up from my chair. “Although, this is none of your business…” I said eyeing them both and crossing my hands on my chest. “I haven’t spoken to Niall for quite a while, let alone see him… There was no drama about it actually. He was a bit distant for a couple of days and then he just stopped texting and so did I… I didn’t want to be too persistent and bothering him when he didn’t want me too…” I told them exactly what had happened, feeling awkward as soon as the words came out my mouth. “See I told you. He didn’t even tell  _her_  what was wrong.” Harry said to the other boy who now stood next to him. Louis let out a breath. They looked at each other for a minute and them back to me. “Could you… I don’t know… possibly, go upstairs and talk to him…?” Louis asked me. “Please…” Harry added while my eyes were travelling between them. “Guys… I’m not sure this is a good idea.” I told them biting my lower lip. “I told you, we haven’t spoken in a while… I’ll probably make things worse.” I told them not knowing how to help them. “You won’t make things worse.” Louis told me and I looked away unable to respond to that. “Look…” Harry started. “… if you don’t want to do it, it’s fine. Really, it’s your decision. But I’ve seen the way he looks at you. He looks up to you…” he went on. “He really does…” Louis added and I didn’t know what to do. “That’s the reason I called you after all. Cause if everything else failed…” Harry began “… and it did fail…”Louis added. “I knew that he would listen to you at least.” Harry continued with pleading eyes. “That’s how he gets you to do whatever he wants?” I asked Louis sarcastically. We all laughed at my comment loosening up the tense atmosphere a bit.. “Ok…” I said in defeat. “I’ll give it a go…” I continued. “Show me his dressing room.” I told them and they both flushed me huge smiles looking like they were about to hug me.

A couple of minutes later we were at a long white corridor. “His is the first door on your right.” Harry said and I stopped walking measuring the distance. “Ok, guys.” I said and took a big breath. “I think I’ll take it from here.” I said in a low voice and looked at them. They didn’t seem to be getting what I suggested. I motioned with my hand towards where we just came from. “Oh, yeah sure…” Harry said in a low voice too, while Louis was looking at me hesitantly. Harry yanked his right arm and they both started walking away whispering something I was too anxious to pay attention to. I took one more breath and pulled my phone out of my pocket. I found Niall’s number and hit the call button. It rang only once before his voice appeared at the other end of the line loud and clear. “Hey…” he said as he picked up with what I hopped was excitement. “Hey there stranger…” I said with a smile “You gone missing for a while…” I went on and started pacing in the room in front of me. “Yeah… There were some… stuff going on…” he told me and there it was. Whatever the boys described was clear now in his voice. “Yeah…” I said not knowing how to respond. “So, I heard you have a big show tonight!” I tried to sound excited and not worried. “Yes…” he said with a small sigh of amusement. “You knowing our shows… Did you become a crazy screaming fan in my absence…?” he asked me and I could hear a small laugh lingering in his voice. “You came in the town I live in. I’m not that oblivious of the world around me…” I said trying to loosen him up and it worked. “Fair enough…” he told me and let a chuckle escape. “Em…I … I know I should have called all these days…” he started apologizing hesitantly. “There is no should or shouldn’t in this case… and I didn’t complain, did I?” I asked him trying to start explaining why I was calling. He said a halfhearted “No…” before I went on. “But for the record I’d love to see you before the show tonight.” I said and I was more anxious than I’ve ever been at this point. “I’d like that too…” he said and I started walking towards his door. “Well, in that case…why don’t you answer the door and we’ll see what we’ll do about that later.” I said with a full smile on my lips. “Answer what do-” he started saying confused when I knocked at his dressing room door. I could hear him standing up. He opened the door and my smile got even wider. “Helen!” he said a bit too loud, I thought at the moment, and hugged me taking me by surprise. “Hello to you too…” I said and let out a small timid laugh as he freed me from his hug. “How did you get in here?” he asked with a smile that made me not regret how I got there. “I have my ways…” I said and raised him my eyebrows teasingly. He laughed and I looked around at the messy room. “So this is Niall Horan’s dressing room…” I said still observing my surroundings. “Of course!” I said and picked up an empty fast-food bag. We both laughed and he turned to sit on a chair on my right. “How do you live in here?” I asked but didn’t let him answer. “No, don’t answer that. I think it’s better if don’t know.” I said sarcastically and he laughed with my face expression. I took a few strides around the room. “I don’t mean to be rude… but please tell me there are more places we can hang out in this arena…” I told him with hesitation biting my lower lip. “You want to go for a walk around the arena?” he said almost like it wasn’t a question. “You figured!” I said with pure sarcasm and we both started laughing. “Come…” he said. “I know a place you’ll really like.” He told me and we exited the room. “What time is the show?” I asked casually while we walked. “We go on at 8 I think.” He answered. “You have tickets?” he said and he knew the answer to this the moment he said it. “Seriously?” I said and gave him a suspicious look. We both laughed at my reaction “Yeah, I bought one of your tickets, which means that I pretty much have to starve for the rest of my semester here, but I forgot what time I had to come to see you perform.” I told him with pure sarcasm coloring my voice again. He laughed at my comment and I shook my head in disbelief. “I know you probably won’t accept them, but I could get you tickets if you want to come.” He offered. “Thanks for offering. I’m glad that you haven’t forgotten everything about me.” I told him and gave him a warm smile. “Nevertheless, I have tons of homework waiting for me at home. I have mid-semester exams this time of the year.” I told him as we walked outside the huge building. “So…how come you are not home studying?” he asked and I knew it was time to do what I had come to do. We sat at a wooden bench close to the fence. “First of all I couldn’t bring myself to concentrate at it all today and then a little bird told me you looked like you needed a friend.” I said like I hadn’t just addressed the elephant in the room. He let out a breath and looked the other way. “Look, I never want in my life to be that annoying person who doesn’t know when to stop. Stop talking, stop bothering, or texting someone.” I said and he turned to look at me. “But if I did something wrong here I’d like to try and fix it…” I said to a very skeptical Niall. “You thought you were bothering me… that’s why you stopped texting me…” he said his eyes fixed at the ground. “Well, you were kind of… drifting away…so I…” I said. I couldn’t finish my sentence. “I was drifting way…” he said like he had just realized it. “Yeah I probably was… But it had nothing to do with you.” He said and turned to look at me. “Did something happen with the band?” I asked as politely as I could. “Kind of…” he said looking away again. “Hey…” I said in a low smoothing voice and placed my hand on his arm. “When did this happen? Why didn’t you say anything?” I went on trying not to make him drift away even more. “A while ago…” he said his eyes still glued to the ground. “I know you don’t like talking about the band too much… and why bothering you since you couldn’t fix this. No one can I think.” He said with a sad tone. “When did I tell you I didn’t want to talk about the band, or any of your problems…?” I told him with a sad voice too. This might be my mess after all. “I will never get hold of this craziness around you guys, because I am not fourteen…” I said with a little tease and he loosen his posture a bit. “…but that doesn’t mean I don’t want to know what’s wrong and try my best to help.” I said titling my head closer to his. He turned to look at me. “I’ve never lied to you and I’m not gonna start now… No matter what, at the end of the day you are at least my friend right?” I asked him and he just shook his head in agreement. “So, tell me what problem you have that you can’t even tell them.” I told him and motioned with my head towards the stadium. He let out a big breath. “It’s a management thing. It’s a big mess actually. There have been some rumors… and it sounded like… like they get to go on while I… I stay behind.” He said with even more sadness. “…That’s why you haven’t told the others anything… You thought they might have already agreed to all this…” I said fully understanding the mess that this management rumor had caused. He just shook his head again. I let out a big breath myself. “You were right.” I said and at last managed to get his attention. “About what?” he asked me looking at me with a troubled face. “I can’t help you solve this.” I said looking directly in his eyes. “But I know four lads that can.” I said and titled my head so that he wouldn’t look away. “And most importantly, they want to.” I said and he looked down again. “Niall?” I said firmly snapping him out of his thoughts. “How do you think I got here today?” I told him and knew he knew what I was talking about. “They called me on my cell! Because they didn’t know what else they could do to help you get back to your old self.” I said as he stayed silent. His hand was resting on the end of the bench. I put my hand over it. “Sometimes, although we know something we need someone else to tell us in order to believe it. They want to help you… and they can!” I told him and looked into his eyes once more. He knew what I was telling him was true. He gave me a warm and thankful smile and I knew this argument was over. He turned his palm up holding my right hand in his left. “You think so…?” he asked hesitantly. “I know so.” I told him not taking my eyes away from him. He gave my hand a small squeeze and turned his head down to look at them. “Where did they find your number?” he asked with a funny expression. “Only you…” I said and I rolled my eyes at him. “Come on get up before Harry has an anxiety attack.” I joked as I yanked him off the bench. We both laughed and started walking towards the door. “You sure you don’t want to come see us tonight? From backstage?” he asked and I gave him a warm smile, noticing that we were still holdings hands. “I think tonight should be only about you five up there. It’s probably been a while.” I told him and I knew from his smile that I was more than right. He flushed me a huge grin and put a hand on the big door that led to the main stage. We could both hear people talking in there. I yanked him by our still entangled hands before he opened the door. I pressed a soft kiss on his lips, taking him by surprise. I knew that moment that door opened I would lose him to four crazy lads. “Good luck tonight.” I said, our faces inches away. He immediately closed the distance and kissed me again. “Thanks.” He said when our lips parted. I motioned him with my head to go in. We both got in smiling. He was welcomed with cheers and a group hug. I turned to picked my stuff and exit the room laughing silently as Louis said “We had to bring the chick down to get Nialler out” playfully to the others.

I reached my Vespa when I noticed a text on my cell. It was a simple ‘Thanks’ from Harry. ‘Any time… It’s your turn to help him. Don’t mess up.’ I send back and put my helmet on. ‘We won’t. I owe you one.’ He texted back and I headed home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So for anyone who might get confused, yes this was set a few months after the moment we left off at part 8… Things are moving on from this point. Possible filler chapters for this time gap may come after this story is finished. Again thank you all for your love for the story :)


	10. Chapter 10

“Morning…” I said in deep sleepy voice as I picked up my phone. “Good morning to you too!” Niall’s excited voice was clear and full of energy at the other end of the line. “If it’s a  _good_  morning, why are you calling me this  _early…”_ I asked, but it sounded more like I was begging him to hang up. “Oh, did I wake you up?… It’s half past eleven…” he said back with a troubled but amused tone. “If you go to bed at 6 am, ‘half past eleven’ gets a whole new meaning…” I said teasingly and got out from bed. “Sorry…” he said and I could hear laughs and noise behind him. “It’s fine. How was the concert?” I asked him and headed to the kitchen. “It was great. The lads were great and everything went fine.” He said and I smiled content with the outcome of last night. “I am glad everything went great. No more problems, right?” I asked and turned on the coffee machine. “Yeah, no more silly problems.” He replied and I knew he was smiling too. “That’s really good news. I’ll get my coffee and go check all your videos from last night.” I told him with a small yawn and got out a mug from my cardboard. “No, I have a better idea. Why don’t you come to the hotel and have brunch with us…?” he asked and I was suddenly wide awake. “Brunch? With all of you?” I said already half convinced to go. “By the pool.” He said eagerly and I let out a small laugh. “The lads suggested it. Everyone here really wants to meet you…” he said and I was already planning my outfit in my head. “How can a girl say no to five gorgeous guys, huh?” I joked and gladly heard the typical Niall laugh from the other end. He gave me the address and the name of the hotel and we hung up.

   I put on my swim suite, a pair of shorts, a white baggy light blouse and fixed my hair in a quick French braid. Soon, I was walking through a narrow hotel corridor heading to the pool area. I stepped outside the glass door and searched around for any signs of Niall while my eyes were adjusting to the sun-light. “Guys she is here!” I heard Niall shout and turned my head towards him. They were sitting closer than I thought, some of them already wet from the pool. Niall, who hadn’t dived in yet marched quickly towards me and hugged me making me let out a surprised sigh. “Yeah! Helen is here!” Harry shouted as soon as Niall’s hands were around me. “Group hug!” he said and hugged me and Niall, wetting us both. I let out one more involuntary laugh as I tried to hug them back. Half a second later three more ‘yeah’s were shouted and three more boys were added to our group hug. I had a huge smile on my face by the point Harry started fidgeting next to me. “Wait. Who is that!?” he said in a funny voice and looked down. “Is that Lux?! You want to hug Helen too, little monster?!” he asked and picked up the girl. “Huh, Lux? You’ll give Helen a hug?” he said sweetly eyeing the little girl in his arms. Our group hug was interrupted but everyone was still around me. Lux opened her arms to hug me in response to Harry’s suggestion and I was overwhelmed by the gesture. “Oh, you are so sweet!” I automatically said and took her in my arms. She gave me the best hug a toddler could ever give and pointed to my sunglasses. “You like my glasses?… There you go little girl…” I said and gave her my sunglasses to play with. With her still in my arms, trying to put on my glasses, I turned to the others, who were still standing next to us. “Hi, I’m Helen.” I said and extended my Lux-free hand to Liam. “Liam. Nice to meet you.” He said back with a polite smile. “And I’m Zayn.” Zayn said next to him. I smiled fondly at both of them. “Congratulations for the show last night. Niall said it went really well.” I told them and tried to get a better hold of Lux in my left arm. “Thanks. How come you didn’t stay…?” Liam asked and turned to look at Lux as she had managed to put my glasses on. “Oops! I think you won’t see these glasses again.” Louis said with a small laugh. “You look really pretty, but what glasses I’ll have now little nugget?” I asked as everyone was amused with the cute girl in my arms. She started fidgeting and I slowly put her down. The minute she reached the ground she started walking towards her mother. “Yeap! You’ll definitely never see these again!” Louis said and started walking behind the young girl. “I’m buying a ticket for your next one.” I said to Liam, not forgetting his question. I turned to look at Niall. “I promise.” I told him and he knew I really meant it. A huge smile started to appear on his face. “Ticket?! Niall?! You haven’t invited her to come backstage yet?!” Liam said pulling a funny shocked face. “Yeah man!” Zayn agreed hitting Niall playfully in the shoulder. “Me?! I’ve told her a thousand times!” Niall said in protest as Zayn continued to playfully keep hitting him. “Well… to tell the truth, you only suggested it twice…” I said with a huge smile only to see Zayn getting fake irritated with Niall. “That was it man!” Zayn said and grabbed Niall and shoved him into the pool. I could help myself from laughing with that image and so did Liam. “Ok! This is a lot to take in this early without coffee…” I said between laughs and pointed at the two guys still fighting. “Come with me.” Liam said and we started walking. “Leave your stuff here and I’ll tell someone to get you a coffee on my way up.” he said and showed me an empty wooden beach chair. “Thanks.” I said with a polite smile as he walked away.

   I put my towel and bag on the chair and sat on its end, appreciating the warmth of the sun. I took off my blouse and smiled at Lux and her mom, who were standing nearby. Lux started walking towards me with her mum hot on her heels. “I think these are yours…” The woman said and handed me my sunglasses. “Oh, yes…” I said, already oblivious that the toddler had my glasses. “Sorry, we are in the I-love-every-pair-of-glasses phase.” She explained with a smile. “It’s fine. I didn’t mind, I gave them to her.” I told her back with a polite smile. “Get ready to give her your bag too.” She said back with a smile and I laughed at the little girl trying to pull my heavy backpack. “I’m Lou.” The woman said and extended her hand at me. “Nice to meet you. I’m Helen.” I said and took her hand. “Nice braid.” She said with a smile referring at my hairdo. “Oh, thanks! Valentino twenty twelve…” I told her and she nodded affirmatively. “You did it by yourself?” she asked politely examining my hair. “Yeah, it’s easier than it looks.” I said and smiled content by her comment. She had gave me an I’m-impressed expression as Lux let a small exasperated ‘Ah!’ escape her lips. She was trying to pull my bag but she hadn’t much luck with it. I and her mother both laughed with the little girl. “Lux!” Harry shouted, with half his body out of the water, making the toddler to look at him. “Drag Helen in here!” he shouted again pointing at me. I laughed as I looked at the confused baby girl that was now looking at me. “What you say sweety?” I asked the confused toddler. “You want to get in the pool?” I went on and got out of my shorts. She said a shy “Yes.” and nodded her head at me. I smiled at her and extended my hand for her to take. She gladly put her little hand into mine and we headed in to the others. “So how we get in Lux?” I asked her playfully. “We jump!” she told me with excitement and turned to flash me a huge smile. “Ok boys, you heard the lady. We are coming in!” I said to the four boys standing close to us from inside the pool. “Yeah! Go back!” Lux shouted at them and motioned with her little hand at them to move, making me and the others let out a small chuckle. “On three. One, two, three!” I said and we both jumped into the pool.

 

   I got my head out of the water slowly and opened my eyes. The others were a few strides away. Lux was already swimming between all four of them and I started to swim towards them too. I approached them only to meet a profoundly smiling Niall. “That definitely beats my average wake up routine…” I told him as he moved in the water to come closer to me. My smile matched his and I really felt the urge to hug him again. “Diving into an Olympic sized pool before breakfast…?” he asked still looking into my eyes making me blush a bit. “That and…” I trailed off and made an effort to take my eyes away from him “…diving with that amazing little monkey!” I said and extended my left arm to tickle Lux. “I think she is a pro at this!” I said in a funny voice as she continued laughing. “Yesss!!” she started repeating over and over again with a smile glued to her tiny face. “A, so you are a pro now?!” I heard Louis as he pulled Lux closer to him and I turned my attention back to Niall who was already laughing with all these. “When you said everyone here wants to meet you I didn’t thought you meant it literally…” I told him with a warm smile trying to float next to him. “But I did.” He said with a crocked smile and shook my head at him. “She is really out going, isn’t she?” I asked Niall and I glanced back at Lux who was playing with the others. “She practically grew up backstage with every single part of the crew.” He answered and I knew what meant to be raised between a lot of people. “But I think she really liked you. She mostly gets to hang out with boys, and we can be boring from times to times.” He said joking and I gave him a weird look. “Overwhelming, yes. Boring… I don’t think so.” I said and even if it was unintended we both exchanged a look that wasn’t supposed to be anywhere near a three-year-old. I blushed a bit with my thoughts and turned to look around spotting a waiter coming towards us. “I think that waiter is looking for me, to take my order.” I told him answering his troubled expression. “Don’t get too excited. He probably won’t get it right.” Niall said disappointed. I gave him a troubled expression this time and headed to the edge as soon as the waiter asked. “A madam who would like to order a cafe?” the young guy said with pure French accent. “Oui… c´est moi. Je voudrais une tasse de cafe allongé,  s’il vous plait.” I told him. “Glacé mademoiselle?” he asked back and noted down my order. “A…si, bien sur… sans sucre, s’il vous plait.” I told him politely again. “Merci beaucoup mademoiselle.” He told me back politely and left with my order. “What the hell you just told him?” Zayn who was standing next to me asked me. I turned to answer him when I met four pair of surprised eyes. “Did you cast some kind of spell?” Louis asked like he couldn’t believe what he just saw. “I’ve never seen a waiter taking a normal order before in this country.” Harry followed and I let out a small laugh. “No, seriously. We couldn’t get a proper cup of coffee for the whole past week in the hotel and you just…” Niall said and motioned with his hands that I casted some spell on the waiter and couldn’t help but laugh. “Yeah, cause you order British coffee and they don’t have a clue what that is.” I told them still smiling. “So is it that  _alonze_  thing you said?” Harry asked and I let out a small laugh as I nodded him ‘yes’. They immediately all started to repeating and shouting ‘alonze’ as I started laughing even more at this point. “What did I miss?” Liam asked somewhere between our laughs. “It’s  _Alonze_ mate!” Zayn said and everyone started repeating it again and again, even Lux. I laughed and motioned a you-better-not-ask hand at a clearly confused Liam. “Aaa… Lux help me… what I’ll do with these lads?” he asked her and gave her a quick underwater hug. He let her go and she started swimming towards me. I extended my hands at her unable to resist. “You wonna play a game?” I told her and her eyes were about to pop out of their sockets from her excitement. “Yes!” she answered and released her from my hands. “But we need one more.” I said and turned to look at Niall. “You mind playing with us?” I asked Niall and although I had no clue why I was blushing. “I’d love to!” he said and Lux swam between us. “Ok. We will make circles… loops with our arms and you’ll have to go through them Lux. Good?” I asked and formed the loop with my arms still in the water. So did Niall a few steps away from me. She took a deep breath and in a matter of minutes every one else were making loops and playing with her. 


	11. Chapter 11

“That’s how I learned to hold my breath longer underwater when I was a toddler.” I told Niall as we started drifting a bit further from the others. “You are really good at this.” He complemented me and I smiled fondly at him. “I am from a country that we go swimming every day for five months every year…” I told him and he shook his head understanding how I knew so many water games. “Where are you from exactly?” Liam asked making me notice him beside us. “Athens… Greece.” I told him with a smile. “So swimming is like your thing…?” he asked eagerly. “Kind of, yeah… From May till October… I personally love swimming in the sea!” I told him reminiscing my last vacation time. “I love the sea as well.Can you do any deep dives?” Liam asked and I was excited we had found a common subject of interest. “Well… I can cover something like 5 meters in one breath, I think…” I said motioning with my hand what I presumed was the distance I could go underwater and Liam shook his head impressed. “… wait, I’ll try to go that end with one dive…” I said pointing to one side of the pool not far from us. I took a deep breath and dived in. I managed to reach the end and submerged myself form the water. Liam shook his head in approval and took a deep breath too. He came almost where I was standing and it was my turn to shake my head approvingly at him. “I just wanted a bit more.” Liam said with a tight smile. “No, you could do it but, I think you have to go down more… vertically.” I advised him and he could understand what I was suggesting him. “Louis is really good at dives too. Hey Louis! Helen knows about diving!” he shouted and Louis who was out of the pool started walking towards us. “She speaks French-waiter-language, Niall-in-crisis, toddler games and diving too?!” he said and kneeled close to us, with a smiling face although I sensed a hint of bitterness in his tone. “I think she can out do your big dive.” Liam said with a wired smile. “What’s your big dive?” I asked innocently. “He can cross the pool in one dive. Show her man…” Liam answered and motioned to a certain part of the pool. Louis glanced at the rest of the lads, took of his sunglasses and dived in. He crossed the distance in one dive in an almost professional way making the others start cheering for him a bit. “Nice!” Harry said and the others made a small run of applause for Louis. “I’m not so sure I can beat that…” I said to Liam and he rushed to convince me otherwise. “Give it a try!” he suggested and I made a move to lift myself out of the water by the side of the pool. I got out and walked to the spot Louis dived from. I hesitated and the boys got even more excited than before. “Go girl!” Harry shouted at me between the “Diving contest!” Zayn said and the long cheerful “Yeah!” Niall said. I shook my head at the disapprovingly and took the dive. I crossed the distance too and fished at the same spot Louis had been a minute before. I got my head out of the water only to find the boys more excited and more cheerful than before. “Again!” Harry and Lux were repeating as I went closer to them. “I don’t think so… Maybe later…” I said with a laugh looking softly at Louis. “My coffee is here. I think I’ll go take a sip and get back in later.” I told Niall and he swam closer to me. “Can you possibly do me a favor?” Niall asked as we both got out the pool. “Sure. What is it?” I asked him concerned. “Can you work your magic with the waiter again and order me something delicious?” Niall asked with a pleading face. “And for a minute there I thought you honestly had something serious to ask me.” I told him between laughs. I had missed his laugh. I ordered him a croque madame and we sat side by side at my chaise-long. Our eyes locked and I wished we weren’t sitting among so many people. “What?” I asked Niall who looked like at the edge of saying something. “I missed hanging out with you.” He said and I was suddenly self-conscious. “I wished I hadn’t been a huge bump-ass and called you the minute I got here.” He said sincerely and the urge of kissing him right then and there was slowly overwhelming me. “I wish I could spend more time with you too. And I am glad I met your friends… and not the 1D boys…” I told him and turned my look to the rest of the boys. “They are mesmerized by you.” Niall said with a warm smile. I gave him a you-are-exaggerating look. “However, I think Louis isn’t that fond of me…” I said in a low teasing voice. “Nah… that’s just his way…” he said and I took a long sip of my coffee. I leaned back on the chair with my legs grabbled close to Niall’s body. He turned his gaze and fixed his eyes to my legs making me question my move. He had a weird expression in his face and he moved his had closer to my leg but dropped it the last minute before his fingers met my skin. “So, what you’ve been up to lately?” he asked me, like he wanted to distract himself. “Same old… Uni, dance classes…my occasional DIY projects… and of course, parting, going out etc…” I trailed off with a small chuckle. He let out a halfhearted chuckle too, “You’re having a good time here…” he said with a smile, but his eyes didn’t much his expression. “I try to make the best of my time, no matter where I am.” I said honestly thinking he should know that by now. He shook affirmatively his head answering my thoughts. “And now with your mid-exams? Less dancing, projects or parting?” he asked a bit troubled with my schedule. “Less sleep.” I answered simply and we both laughed. “Maybe less parting but never less dancing!” I told him with a serious face, but somehow he was still amused by my answer. “You really love dancing, don’t you?” he asked in an attempt to figure me out. “It’s everything I love and hate at the same time.” I told him with a sympathetic smile. He turned to look at me with the funniest puzzled face someone can master. I couldn’t help but laugh with his face expression. “How do you think I got bad knees, dear?” I asked and tried to compose myself a bit. “You didn’t have them? You got them?” he asked a bit serious this time. “Yeah… I’ve injured myself several times. And all of them were during different dance classes.” I said and he looked even more curious than before. “My elbow, my spine, my ankle and of course my knees…” I went on and he looked surprised. “I’m clumsier than you think…” I joked and he shook his head negatively. “But that’s exactly the point, you are not clumsy…” he told me, unable to figure out how I could have hurt myself so many times. “I dislocated one of my knees when I was sixteen, for the first time, while dancing and it’s the worst experience of my life.” I told him and he knew I wasn’t even the least joking about this. He stayed silent just observing my face with a comforting smile. I shook the thought out of mind. “But that didn’t stop me from doing what I love.” I continued managing to flush him a sweet smile. “So you hate it because it hurt you…” he presumed, still looking me in the eyes. “It had hurt much deeper through the years than these injuries.” I told him back and it was obvious I wasn’t talking for physical pain any more. He gave me a tight smile and I knew he was feeling sorry for me. “But you never gave up…?” he asked in a low voice. I turned to look at him gave him a small chuckle. “If you had never made it as a worldwide known singer and Simon had told you that you would never become a singer, no matter how hard you tried … Would it stop you from singing?” I asked still smiling and he knew what I meant. “It probably wouldn’t…” He answered, mimicking my smile. “So you wanted to become a professional dancer?” he asked casually a second later. “Pretty much.” I answered absentminded. “But… you didn’t pursuit your dream?” he asked with mere curiosity. “The hell I did pursuit my dream!” I answered him with wide eyed pretending to be offended by that. “Oh…” he said in an attempt to apologize but I cracked him a smile and he knew that I was teasing him. “Just so you know…When I was fourteen, I got accepted at a professional dance academy.” I started saying and I knew I had his full attention. “I stayed there for almost three years. But…there wasn’t a fourth year…” I continued with a tight smile at this point. He shook his head understanding. “Was there a Simon telling you ‘you don’t get to go to the next phase’?” he said with a chuckle and it was obvious that he couldn’t joke about this with his whole heart. “No. I told myself that.” I answered unable to really joke about it too. He turned and gave me a troubled face. “You decided to leave…?” he asked confused. “Yes, I did.” I answered honestly. His face got even more puzzled. “Why…?” he asked hesitantly. I looked at his eyes and gave him a small smile. I took a deep breath and went on. “Because, I wasn’t born to do this. I was in a constant battle with my body from the minute I turned twelve. My proportions were all wrong, my weight was never good enough and I was living in a country with very little opportunities in that area…” I explained him what had exactly happened not so many years ago. “Thankfully, I was clever enough to be honest with myself and admit all these ‘flaws’ at the right time. I loved the art of dancing too much and I wasn’t willing to serve it as a mediocrity. Dancers are the best of the best, not someone who struggles to keep up…” I went on and I knew there was a hint of sadness in my voice, but I couldn’t make it go away. “Sorry, I’m mumbling…” I said as I snapped back to reality. “No, no… I wanna hear about it…” he rushed to reassure me. “So you were just seventeen… and you decided that dancing was over for you?” he asked with something that looked like a surprised face. “No. I was eighteen and it was my professional plans that were over… not dancing!” I told him with a firm voice. “Nevertheless, it’s a hard decision…” he said impressed by my maturity at the time. “It was.” I admitted looking down. “But I told myself, something I strongly believe about every human being. If I wasn’t born to be great at this, then there is definitely something else I could be great at.” I told him and turned look in his eyes. He looked me back, and for the first time it was like he admired what I was saying and not what he was looking at. “So… I started searching for my ‘hidden’ talents…” I said with a playful smile. “And what did you find? Architecture?” he asked mimicking my expression. “I found design. And we became great pals…” I said and winked at him. “Yeah, I know… I still have the little plain I stole from your place.” He said with a chuckle. “If you are stealing from her too… there is no hope left for you mate…” Zayn said as he came and sat to the empty chair next to us. “He is lying. It was a gift. He didn’t steal it.” I said and eyed Niall with the corner of my eye. “Not a thief, but a liar…” Zayn said disapprovingly. “Who’s the liar? Niall?” Louis said as he approached us too. Zayn shook his head ‘yes’ and pointed at Niall faking a fed up grimace. “Definitely.” Louis told me in a low voice leaning a bit to my side. “Hey…” Niall said before I could respond to the comment. “Whose side are you on man?” Niall went on asking less playfully this time and I couldn’t help but laugh at the scene. “Hers of course!” Louis said giving Niall what I thought was a hilarious face expression. “Oh, I’m flattered dear…” I said honestly still smiling at all of them. “We are heading up stairs to grab a bite. Wanna come?” Zayn said a second later and stood up. I eyed Niall measuring his face. “I could eat something… I am kind of hungry.” I admitted hesitantly. “You don’t have to ask me twice.” Niall said while smiling at me. “We’ll be up in a minute.” He said and I waved with my head in agreement.


	12. Chapter 12

We got out of the elevator and started walking through a wide corridor. I followed Niall as he headed to a door on our left. We were making a small stop by his room, so he could change into some clothes, before we went to find the others. “Sorry for the mess…” he said apologetically and opened the door for me. “I have an older brother. Don’t worry I’ve learned to ignore boys’ _messiness_.” I told him with a chuckle and left my backpack in an empty chair. “I didn’t know you had a brother.” Niall said and went through some piles of clothes. “Yeah I do… I mostly wanna kill him, and I’m sure so does he…” I said with clear tease in my voice. “But I wouldn’t change him for the world…” I went on walking absentmindedly  around the room. “How much older is he?” Niall asked back. “Three years.” I answered and approached his window. “So you are like those siblings that fight all the time?” He said curiously. “Definitely! We fight constantly, even now… that you could say we are  _grown-ups_.” I said and turned to look at him with a humoring smile. “I think I made him get stiches once…” I said still smiling at the memory. “You gave your brother stiches?!” he asked in disbelief. “Yes, I did! I am secretly proud of that actually, because he used to win all our fights. And for once I was the less injured one.” I explained and he laughed. “I would like to see you fight with a guy! Seriously…” he said still laughing. “You’ll have to come to Greece.” I told him with a smile. “Is that an invitation?” he asked as he put a shirt on. “That was a condition to grand your wish sir.” I said and looked him with the corner of my eye as he came closer to me. “And what if I had another wish… right now…” he asked me, standing too close to me by this point. “I’m afraid the answer is no. They are waiting for us.” I said looking more innocent than I was at that moment. “No…?” he said teasingly with a sad face. I rolled me eyes at him and turned to leave. He grabbed my arm and pulled me close. “How about later?” he asked flushing me a grin. My face was inches from his. I was trapped in his arms. “Although, I know how to free myself, I’ll pretend I’m totally defeated…” I said and looked into his smiling eyes. “If we have time I will grant your wish later…” I said and his smile grew bigger and I let out a small laugh “Great!” he said and leaned closer to gave me a small tender kiss. I put my hand in his cheek and returned the kiss. It was clear to him and to me. I had missed this. “We have to go…” I said as our lips parted. “Yeah…” he said with his eyes still fixed on my lips. “No. We are not ditching your friends for sex.” I said as I titled my head back in an attempt to make him miss my lips. “Oh…why…?” he said and he kissed softly my neck. “Because they’ll know, and I’ll feel bad.” I said and he took in a deep breath. “Fine…” he said and loosened his grip on me. “Just to inform you, they wouldn’t feel bad  _at all_  if they were in your shoes…” he said and we exited his room. “Yeah, because I tend use my brain and not my genitals to think with…” I told him in a low voice leaning close to his ear. “Don’t bother… It’s a girl thing, you’ll never get it…” I said with a chuckle and walked a few steps in front him to get in the elevator first. He got in shaking his head in disbelief, but I could see him smiling.

  “So, whose room is this?” I asked as Niall knocked at the door with the number forty on. “Liam’s.” he said as Liam opened the door for us to come in. Niall walked in first and I followed quickly after flushing a polite smile at Liam. “Nice room, tidy…” I said and went to sit on an empty armchair. “Yeah… Probably the only one out of five.” Liam said back and I let out a chuckle at his comment. “So what will you order us?” Louis asked and sat to a couch close to me. “I don’t know… What do you want?” I asked glancing at all of them. “You know you are doomed to take our order from us for now on, right?” Liam told me teasingly and offered me a cool beverage. “It’s fine. Give me a menu so I can  _feed_  you…” I said playfully and took a sip of my beverage. Soon, I had a piece of paper in my hand with what everyone wanted, feeling like an actual waitress. “Oh, wait…” I said looking at my small note. “Mmm, I think I have less one …” I said looking over at the couch where Zayn and Harry were. “Zayn didn’t tell me what he wanted…” I told to a completely oblivious Zayn. “Oh, I’m sorry… don’t you  eat?” I asked seriously only to meet Liam’s amused face and Zayn’s troubled expression. “What?” he asked puzzled trying to catch up with what I’ve been asking him for the past minute. “You didn’t tell me if you wanted something and I thought… you were fasting?” I asked timidly and honestly confused at this point. “Oh, no… why would I be fasting?” Zayn asked back and I was a bit embarrassed. “Oh, I’m sorry! I thought it was this big Muslim fest… I don’t know how you call it… Sorry I didn’t mean to offend you or something. Really I’m sorry.” I said feeling really bad at the point. “Oh, no no it’s fine… You didn’t offend me.” He reassured me. “You mean Ramadan?” he asked me with a polite smile. “I guess. Is that when you eat only at night?” I asked him still a bit embarrassed. “Yes, that’s Ramadan. It’s next week.” He said and gave me a content smile. “Good. I wasn’t talking completely nonsense all this time…” I told him with a relived smile. “No, you weren’t. Don’t worry about it.” He said with a smile on his face. “Sorry to interrupt your bonding moment guys, but can we order first and then we can talk about our  _ten_ different religions all you want.” Harry said before I could respond to Zayn.

   “De rien mademoiselle.” the man told me in the other end of the line and I hung up. “It’ll be here in a few minutes.” I said and went to sit at my previous spot. “Great! I’m starving.” Harry said as he took the laptop off Louis and sat next to him. “We got that part…” I said teasingly. “And how you knowing about Ramadan?” he asked with mere curiosity “as I’m guessing you are not one” he continued. “I don’t know…” I said trying to remember how I learned this stuff. “We have a lot of Muslims in my country and in Paris too… Or maybe I’ve visited Turkey too many times.” I said with a small laugh shoving involuntary my shoulders. He returned me a polite smile and I could see he was glad to be talking about this. “Have you ever been to Turkey?” I asked and turned to look at all of them. “I think we haven’t.” Louis answered glancing at me over his laptop screen. “Neither to Greece.” Liam added at I took one more sip of my refreshment. “I’m sure that you’ll all liked it if you visited any of them.” I told them and glanced at Niall. “Especially you.” I told Niall who was completely relaxed in his end of the couch. “They have great food right?” Liam asked with a tease and went to answer the door. “You can’t imagine!” I said as he walked in with a table full of foods and everyone started on their plates. “What’s your favorite dish?” Zayn asked me a few minutes later. “Mmm… I don’t know… Greek one…?”I said trying to figure out what to answer. “She is just like you, mate!” Louis told Niall and started laughing and I knew my confusion on the matter was obvious. “It’s the only question Niall is afraid of in an interview.” Harry told me with a smile and I couldn’t help but roll my eyes. “Well he can’t decide because he is in love with everything edible. I just… hadn’t given so much thought to the matter.” I said with an uninterested face. “She is nothing like you, mate!” Louis said again and caused a round of laughs in the room. “Oh… come on… there must be a meal you can’t wait to eat!” Niall told me with wide eyes. “Ok ok! I’ve really missed… my mum’s pies. Yes! That’s definitely it. My mum’s cheese honey pie!” I said with a proud face. “Cheese and honey?” Louis asked with an almost disgusted face. “Oh, yes! I could live out of this stuff…” I said and there was another knock on the door. Liam went to answer it again and followed with my eyes as my curiosity got the best out of me. Liam opened the door and a familiar face showed up. “You asked for me?” Paul asked Liam with a troubled face. “I didn’t… Guys you called Paul?” Liam said and walked back into the room. I gave a polite wave to Paul who was standing a few meters away and he gave me back a polite smile. “Yeah! I called him. Wait a sec.” Niall said and rushed to where Paul was standing. They got out of the room and started chatting. By the time Niall got back we had almost fished our meal. He went to sit to his place and I got up to find my bag. I looked around for a couple of minutes and couldn’t spot it. “You need something?” Niall asked me politely. “My cell actually, but…I think I forgot my bag in your room.” I said still looking around the room. “Ok, we can go and get it.” He said and got up and put his empty plate back on the table. “Thanks.” I said as Niall picked up his phone and his room key. “Well guys, I think I’ll head home after…” I told to everyone in the room and four pair of eyes turned to look at me. “I loved meeting you all and I had a great morning!” I told them honestly and flushed them a huge smile. “We are glad you came too.” Liam said politely mimicking my smile. “Bye Helen!” Harry said loudly and all started waving at me. “See you soon girl!” Louis said with a funny voice and I laughed at his comment. “Sooner than you think.”  Niall said teasingly and started walking to the door. “What?” I asked and followed him a bit confused. He didn’t answer and we both got into the elevator. I wanted to ask him again but I was a bit embarrassed to do so in front of the old couple in the small elevator cabin. We reached his door and he let us in. “Oh, there it is…” I said and picked up my bag. I was grabbed my cell from the bottom of my bag and I felt of pair of hands on my waist. He turned me, so I was facing him and pushed me gently with my back on the wall. He didn’t say a word and started kissing me. I didn’t protest. “Thank God you  _accidently_  forgot your phone! I couldn’t think of a better excuse.” he said with a weird smile between our kisses. “You bastard… you think I did it on purpose?” I asked not angry at all and we locked lips again. “I think I… love that I can finally do that… and that… and that…” he said and started to leave traces of his lips up and down my neck. I took in a deep breath and tried not to get distracted. My right hand was buried in his hair and my left still holding my cell was travelling along his spine. “Don’t get me wrong here…” I said and there was too much lust for my liking in my voice. “I want you to do all _that_ … but can you do it a bit… faster…” I said and I glanced at the time on my cell. “I don’t have much time…” I said and my lips met his, too eagerly and not gently at all this time. “As you wish  _mademoiselle_ …” he said with a huge grin and he picked me up. My legs were locked around his waist and I was lost in his touch.

   I closed my eyes and rested my head on his shoulder. He was playing with a strand of my hair as I tried to convince myself I had to get going. I wasn’t tired but my body was involuntary to move. There was a knock on the door but I didn’t open my eyes. I felt Niall getting up and I rolled to the other side of the bed. I saw my bra and picked it up. I put it on and I felt the bed sifting again. Niall grabbed me with one hand by my waist. “I have to go…” I said with a sad voice as we were both laid on the pillows again. “Me too…” he said and pulled me closer burying his head between my neck and my collarbone. I turned and kissed him tenderly. Our lips parted and our eyes met. “Get up.” I said as a command but my voice was too soft. He left out an exacerbated smile and we got up.

   “I hopped didn’t forget anything.” I said as I adjusted my backpack in place. “Wait a second.” He said with something like embarrassment coloring his voice. I watched him confused as he retrieved a big brown post-office envelope off his things. He came closer and gave me the closed envelope. “Just in case you meant what you said earlier.” He said timidly as I opened the envelope still confused. There was a black laminated card hanging by a red string. It had the logo of the band on top and my mane on the bottom. I looked between Niall and my back stage-pass mesmerized. “I don’t know what to say…” I said still overwhelmed. “That you’ll come… I want you to come, the lads want you to come and you said that you wanted-” he started mumbling tensed and silenced him with my lips. I felt him relax and deepen our kiss. “I’ll be there.” I said in a low voice looking him in the eyes, when our lips parted. “Good.” He said back with a huge smile, pulling me into a tight hug. “I might be a bit late, since it wasn’t in my plans two seconds ago…But I won’t miss it.” I said with a huge smile to and he gave me a quick peck and I could see content in his eyes. “Now let me go get all gorgeous and irresistible…” I said sarcastically. “So that I’ll mess up all my lyrics and this would be the worst performance ever…” he said teasingly too. “And I will dance all night to the worst performance ever!” I told him with a huge smile and we both laughed. “Who I’ve turned you into?!” he said and we laughed even more.

   In a few hours the five boys were on stage and I was surrounded by thousands of screaming fans. And to my very own surprise we were all dancing, singing, jumping, laughing and having the time of our life…


	13. Chapter 13

 “Bravo!” I was screaming on top of my lungs and kept applauding, just like the rest of the arena. “Bravo!” I shouted again and my eyes were fixed on the five boys. All I could see from my spot in the side of the stage was their backs, as they thanked the crowd. Niall was the first to start walking to the back of the stage, and the others soon followed. “Ah! Congratulations! That was amazing!” I told him full of excitement and opened my arms to hug him with a huge smile glued on my face. “Ha! You liked it!” he said looking at me excited as well . “You were a-m-a-z-i-n-g up there!” I told him and the others as they approached us. “That means you had a good time, then.” Harry told me with a smile. “Are you kidding me?! I had a  _great_  time!” I told him with wide eyes. They all looked tired but content at the same time. “Great show guys.” A woman with headphones and a small board told them and noted something down. “Thank you Mary!” Louis said with a funny voice and they all started to take off what I assumed was their acoustic equipment. She smiled politely and walked away with her hands full. “We’ll go up to change. You coming?” Niall asked as we were already headed further in the stadium. I shoved my shoulders involuntary and followed them. “So how are your ears?” Louis asked teasingly as we got into the elevator. “They hurt, I have to admit…” I said and laughed at his question. “I think if you don’t know how to scream, you are not allowed in your fandom.” I continued and they all started laughing. Niall’s clear laugh sounded in the small cabin and I couldn’t help but turn to look at him with an adoring expression. He probably caught that and flushed me a mesmerizing smile. I bit my lip awkwardly and he winked at me. I knew it was a simple teasing wink but I immediately blushed. “However, I have to admit guys…” I started saying to distract myself. “…I was screaming for you tonight as well.” I said embarrassed but still smiling. “You screamed like a twelve-year old?!” Niall asked me not believing what I just said. “Yeah… and quite a lot actually…” I said secretly enjoying myself for the great time I had. “What have we done to human kind?” Louis asked sarcastically and we all started laughing. “If we turned you into a crazy screaming fan, then that was it…our job here is done!” Liam continued as we exited the elevator, starting a new round of laughters. “I brought this on myself, didn’t I?” I asked Niall with disbelief. “Yeah you did.” He said back teasingly. I rolled my eyes and he chuckled. “See you in thirty.” Harry said as Niall opened the door of his dressing room. “Don’t be late.” I heard Louis say before I followed Niall inside the room. “Late? For what?” I asked Niall who had already started to undress. “What? You thought that was it?” he said and picked something from his bags. “The fun starts now missy! We are going out. And ‘no’ isn’t an acceptable answer.” He said and got into the bathroom before I could respond.

   I turned my gaze away from Louis and Zayn, still laughing with how the boys messed around in the bar. I took one more sip of my drink as I felt someone sitting on the stool next to me. Liam waved to the barman to refresh his drink and I gave him a smile. “You having fun?” He asked me politely. I nodded with my head as my smile got wider. “It’s like you can’t get rid of me today.” I said with a tease and he laughed. “Don’t be fooled we are really good at getting rid of unpleasant people.” He said and I totally believed him. “You are fun to be around.” He said casually trying to explain me how I came to spend my whole day with these guys. “Glad to know.” I said flattered by his compliment. “You are fun to be around too…” I told him politely. “You are always so polite or it’s just for when we visit?” he asked kindly. “What do you mean when you visit? I hope I am like this every day…” I said with a skeptical smile. “It’s just what you did for us with Niall and…our orders of course!I don’t know… We barely know you and you seem to be…our best friend in this town…” he said and I knew he was telling me exactly what he was thinking. “If I can help, I do help. It’s that simple for me.” I said back with an honest smile. “But it’s really rewarding when others acknowledge what you did for them. Thank you.” I said amazed of Liam’s manners and character. “Well, thank you too.” He said and raised his glassed. I mimicked him and we both took a god sip of our drinks. I put my glass back on the counter and turned to look at the others absentminded, but I ended up staring at Niall’s crazy dance in the middle of the room. I let out a chuckle and took another sip of my drink. “You know he really likes you, right?” Liam said with an amused but firm voice. My eyes were fixed on my hands and I pondered with the thought of pretending I didn’t hear him. “You know I really like him too, right?” I told him unable to take my eyes off my hands. “I hoped you did…” he said with a small laugh and I felt less tense. I let out a small chuckle and turned to look at Liam. “Then… why… Why don’t you…do something?” he asked me, struggling to find the right words. “Like what?” I asked, surprised that I wasn’t nervous having this conversation with a guy I knew only a few hours. “ _Claim_  him?” I asked Liam teasingly and we both let out a small laugh. “It’s a thought…” he said teasingly too. I turned to glance at Niall once more. “I wish I could…” I said almost to myself. “Well if you want my opinion… I think you should.” He said and stood up from the stool, standing closer to me with his drink in his hand. “You should what?” Niall asked taking me by surprise. I and Liam turned to face him. I didn’t know what to say but a bit tipsy Harry saved the moment. “What? Is Liam hitting on you?” Harry asked playfully and rested one arm over Niall’s shoulders. “Nah… he didn’t even offer me a drink!” I answered with a fake disgusted face. I looked at Liam and laughed at the irony of the moment. “Hands off mate. She is taken.” Harry said and Liam couldn’t hold back a laugh. “Liam, Liam, Liam… haven’t we talked about this dear?” Louis asked teasing him, appearing out of nowhere. Liam lowered his head like he was a toddler facing detention. Watching his face expression, I couldn’t hold back my laughs. “Now apologize to the nice lady.” Louis went on. “I’m sorry miss.” Liam said and I laughed even more. “Apology accepted.” I said between my laughs and patted him on the back. “He won’t do it again miss.” Louis said faking a reassuring expression at me as he and Harry took Liam and started walking to the dance floor. I had to admit they were the craziest guys I’ve met in a long time. “They are like this every day?” I asked Niall as he took Liam’s place next to me. “And worse…” he responded with a smile. “You look pretty beat up.” I told him honestly and took the last sip of my drink. “I am.” He said and rubbed his eyes with his right hand. “You and me both….I don’t think I’ll stick around for long too.” I told him a sad smile. “Sleep is the one thing I really miss on tour.” Niall said absentminded. “What time do you fly tomorrow?” I asked suddenly remembering it was their last night in France. “Ten… Twelve…? I have no idea…” he said and I could see how tired he was by every passing minute. “I think will call it a night… and you should too.” I suggested and got off my stool. “You think…?” he said in a low voice playing with the thought. I nodded with my head ‘yes’. “You wonna…maybe come with me back to the hotel?” he asked hesitantly. “Just hang out… Nothing more…” he continued and I was a bit skeptical. “I’ll go say bye to the guys…” I said and walked away from a thinking Niall. After four long hugs and sweet goodbyes I went back to the bar and picked my purse and jacket. “Get up.” I told him in a sweet voice. “It’s your last night and we are hanging out at your place tonight…” I told him with a smile as he stood up. “Thank’s…” he said not expecting I would accept his earlier offer. We started walking to his car. “Thank me when I’ll fall asleep on your couch.” I told him and we both let out a small laugh.

   “So it wasn’t as bad as you imagined it being surrounded by our fandom.” He said and sat next to me on his huge couch. “I didn’t imagine it would be that funny.” I said and looked at him. “Funny?” he asked trying to get what I was saying. “Don’t even get me started…” I said and rolled my eyes. “What?” he asked curious. “Their posters, the t-shirts, the things they screamed… You could hear everything that popped in their minds yelled in your ear.” I said with a chuckle. “But the Best thing was the dads!” I said firmly. “Yeah I know…” Niall said and started laughing. “They were like they were oblivious… So many people screaming and shouting around them and they were like…  _numb_  to everything going on… It was priceless!” I told him and we both started laughing. “And in pure honesty, I have to admit these four guys are the best lads someone could find out there. I’m glad you have them around you. You are lucky…” I told him seriously. “You sound just like my mum.” He commented and we immediately started laughing. “But I’m glad too, that you think like that about them. Since they already think that exact same thing about you…” He said and looked me in the eyes. “Yeah, I’m starting to believe you are saying the truth now…” I said and flushed him a cute smile. “Starting?” he asked me with a troubled face. “Well you told me the morning too, but I thought you were just being polite. You know… not to make me feel uncomfortable…” I told him and he rolled his eyes. “You? Uncomfortable? You were like you knew them for years!” he protested and I shoved his shoulder think that he was exaggerating again. “Nevertheless…when you say it, it sounds like that. But when Liam came to talk to me tonight it was so polite and thoughtful…” I told him honestly. “Yeah, sweet Liam…” he said teasingly. “So he wasn’t hitting on you?” Niall joked and I gave him a tight smile. “No, he wasn’t. He just wanted to talk.” I told him with half a tease as I remembered what Liam had suggested earlier. “What he want to talk to you about?” he asked and it was obvious he couldn’t imagine any common subject me and Liam had. “He wanted to thank me for yesterday, for one thing…” I trailed off and looked away from his face. “And for the other…” he said suggesting that I went on. I hesitated for a second. “He asked me why…why I haven’t  _claimed_  you yet.” I said with the same feeling I have when I pull a band aid and flushed him a forced smile. He looked down awkwardly. “And… what did you answer?” he asked and I was instantly nervous. “You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to…” he added quickly and took one more sip of his beer. “Well to be honest I didn’t answer him…” I said with a chuckle at the ironic moment. “But I can answer to you if you want to.” I said in a low voice measuring as much as I could see of his face. He turned to look at me without saying a word and I knew he wanted to know what I was thinking. “Ok look…” I started with hesitation. “I’m not saying I’m not waiting to find someone to spend my everyday with… But I’m not a little girl anymore; I know very well what you can give me. I knew it that night in London as well as I know it now.” I kept on while the conscious part of my head told me to stop. He shifted his body forward so that his elbows were resting on his knees. “I didn’t expect you to say that…” he started talking, almost to himself. “You… you have a chance to… ask for more… and you… you just…” he tailed off and I think there was a hint of disappointment in his tone this time. “I don’t like demanding things that are not offered to me in the first place…” I said with pure honesty. “I’m not saying that I don’t want to ask for more, but… Is that even an available option?” I continued and turned to him measuring his expression. The answer was no, and we both knew it. He turned to look at me with a tight expression on his features. “I don’t like saying something I might take back really soon.” He said and a forced laugh escaped my lips. “I know.” I admitted and there was disappointment in my voice too. I looked away from him, but I could feel his eyes on me. “I’ve never met anyone like you.” He said with a voice that demanded my attention. I turned and looked at his eyes. “I mean it. I don’t want us to stop talking… or hanging out. Really.” He said and I could see the honesty of his words reflecting in his eyes. “We won’t.” I told him with a straight voice. “As long as we both want and are able to talk and hung out, we will. You remember what I told you yesterday at the back of the arena?” I asked him in sweet voice. “You are at least my friend at the end of the day…” he said in a low voice. “Exactly… So no obligations, no labels… just what we feel like…How’s that sound?” I suggested with an almost real smile on my lips. “Sounds good.” He said and I could see his lips start cracking a real smile too. 


	14. Chapter 14

 I patted my index finger on my motors right handle, along the rhythm playing in my head phones. I stopped at the red light looking at the pedestrians passing in front of me when I put both of my feet on the ground, better supporting the weight of my Vespa. I was adjusting my helmet better in its place when my music stopped playing. I instinctively patted my pocket and felt my phone buzzing in there. “Allô?” I said as I pushed the small talk bottom on my head set. “Allô!” Niall said with a funny accent from the other end of the line not knowing how to respond to my French saluting. “Hey… Sorry I didn’t see it was you…” I said excited with a goofy smile lingering in my face. “Oh, mademoiselle…” Niall started mumbling what he thought was French words and I started laughing; pretty sure these weren’t actual words in any modern language. “Stop…” I said still amused as the light turned green and I speed up down the big boulevard. “Why? Don’t you like my French?” he asked with an amused voice too. “No, I love it, but these wasn’t French. This was how a baby learns to speak.” I told him and he started laughing so hard in the other end of the line that I had to try really hard not to start laughing hysterically too. It’s been approximately a month since the band was in Paris and this was happening every single day… and sometimes more than once. He would call, or I would call him and it was only a matter of seconds before we were crying from laughter. “Where are you? There is too much noise.” Niall asked as I got closer to a big turn. “I’m on my way to the uni. I have an extra class today. Off schedule…” I told him and took the turn noticing there was something off with the mini van beside me. “Oh, that’s a shame… I wanted to talk to you…” he said with a sad voice. “Sorry… I’ll be late today. Where are you? What time you’ll be free tonight?” I asked ready to suggest him to have a skype-call late at night. “Well, I’m at the stadium. But we are almost done he-” Niall was telling me but I couldn’t hear him any more. My brain couldn’t understand what was going on any more. I tried to hold on to my Vespa, but I couldn’t. I felt the left side of my body hitting the hard ground and my helmet meeting the asphalt with great force. I think I saw the side of the mini van abruptly in front of me and loud horns where sounding every where around me along with screams. I closed my eyes scared and then I could feel it something was wrong. I felt pain start getting to me but I couldn’t place where it was coming from. I heard more screams and by that point I didn’t care where pain was coming from all I wanted was for it stop. I tried to open my eyes or move but it was impossible. I tried again but it was like all my power was drained off of me. I tried once more but it was like a black weight was pulling me down. I was trying so hard not to let it consume me when I felt someone yanking me gently and shouting something at me. “Mademoiselle!” the voice said again and I saw a bright light brushing quickly right in front of my eyes. I blinked several times and I knew I was screaming this time. I was layed down in a bed inside what I presumed was an ambulance. I was shooting for them to stop the pain and a young man was trying to hold me down while asking me about hospitals.  _French! You have to talk to them in French!_  I repeated in my head again and again. I mumbled what my name and insurance was and I layed back hoping they got what I was saying. I felt a new wave of pain hitting me again and I knew it was coming from my left leg.  _Not again!_  “No!” I screamed and I was sure I had started crying by that point. My eyes were closing again and that black weight was hovering over me once more. I didn’t protest this time; I gladly let it consume me and went back in to a deep slumber as I was pushed through a hospital corridor.

   I felt a gentle hand caressing my face. “Elenaki?” a sweet voice was repeating very close to my face. I knew that voice, it was Vicky and I was sure she was upset. “Hon?” she said again in a low voice and I knew she had tears in her eyes. She used to call me  _hon_ , sort for honey, whenever either of us was upset. I nodded slightly with my head and made an effort to open my eyes. “V…” I said in very low voice while still fighting to keep my eyelids open. “ ‘m tired…” I mumbled and managed to take a good glance at her face. “I know hon… Just open your eyes for me… for a couple of secs…” she said in a pleading voice. “Stop crying, or I’ll go back to sleep.” I said and looked at her the best I could. “and there she is ladies and gentle man…” she tried to joke as she wiped her eyes. I gave her a tired smile. “I’m fine V.” I told her and squeezed her hand that was holding mine. “Now you tell me… I lost ten years of my life when that French nurse called me…” she said and shook her head at me. A small chuckle escaped my lips. “How long was I out?” I asked and looked a bit around the hospital room. “Probably something like… five hours. They did a small surgery at your left leg.” I said and I tried not show her how freaked out I was at that point. “Don’t panic.” She said, brushing her hand over mine and I knew she could see how freaked I was. “Helen. Look at me.” She order and I looked at her eyes. “You didn’t break any thing. You will be fine. Don’t look at me, I’m allergic at hospitals that’s all…” she joked again and I managed to let out a small laugh this time. I tried to look at my body in an attempt to find out what had happened. “A van when out of his way and you crushed your Vespa, right at his side.” Vicky said as if she knew what I was thinking. “Oh, yeah… that white one…” I said remembering the mini van driving in front of me. “Yeah. Your leg was full of peaces of broken glass. That’s why they took you in surgery. You didn’t break any thing but as usual… you managed to harm your left leg pretty bad, some ribs too and they are a bit afraid for your head.” She explained and I knew she was making it look less important so I wouldn’t have a panic attack right then and there. I nodded and accepted her view of the facts for the night. “They are afraid I might have a concussion…?” I said and a yawn escaped my lips. “Yeah… Thank God you had that helmet on.” She said and run a hand through my hair. I gave her another tired smile and blinked exhausted. “Go back to sleep…” she said and I let another yawn escape. “I feel exhausted.” I told her with closed eyes. “I know. It’s from the drugs. Go to sleep. I’ll see you in the morning.” She reassured me. “You’ll stay here?” I asked her confused. “Where else would I go?” she said back and kissed my forehead. I nodded and closed my eyes.

   I felt someone picking at my hand.  _Hey there that hurts_ … I thought as I opened my eyes to face a young nurse. She was checking my vitals or my ivy. I had no idea and I wanted to go back to sleep. “Morning sleeping beauty.” I heard Vicky’s voice as she approached my bed from the nearby chair. “Hey…” I said in a husky voice. “What time is it?” I asked and fidgeted in my bed. “Nine thirty.” She said and took fork of the small hospital table on the end of my bed. “Ugh… Can you wake me up in two hours please?” I said and rested my head back in the pillow. “I’m afraid not…” Vicky said and gave me the fork as the nurse exited the room. “Also she brought this awful stuff an hour ago and I think you have to eat it…” she said and pushed the tray closer to me. “God… There is no croissant here…They are French after all…” I said and took a bite of what looked like small bread. “How are you feeling? Does it hurt anywhere?” she asked and glanced me from head to toe. “It does… everywhere to be exact, but not much. It’s the good pain. I’m healing…” I told her and took a sip from what I presumed was an orange juice. “Good. That’s great. Cause there’s someone here to see you.” She said with a weired smile. I knew that smile. It was what she thought was her kinky, naughty smile of hers while it was just a funny expression. “Someone is here to see me?” I asked completely oblivious. “Yes, missy… And he has been waiting for quite a while. Should I tell him you are awake?” she asked still smiling at me like an idiot. “Please tell me it’s not Antoine?” I said with a disgusted expression. “No, silly! He’s not some stupid French _Casanova_ …” she said and walked outside my room. I could hear her talking to someone and I sifted my head a bit trying to make out who she was talking with. I still hadn’t figured it out when Vicky opened the door again. She winked playfully at me and made room for whoever was following her to come in.

   I saw a blond head peeking from Vicky’s side and I knew immediately who it was. Niall took some hesitant steps towards my bed with a cute smile glued on his face. I was in absolute shock. “Hey…” he said in a low voice. “Niall?!” I said trying to figure out what was going on. “Yeap. That’s me.” He said and gave me a crooked smile. My eyes traveled between him and Vicky and I knew my lack of information was clear to both of them. “Ok, don’t get me wrong, but what are you doing here?” I asked completely puzzled. “Nice to see you too…” he said with a small laugh. “Someone please tell me I didn’t hit my head that hard and that it wasn’t planed for him to come and I suddenly have amnesia or something…” I said a bit panicked at the thought. “Don’t you remember when the last time we talked was?” Niall asked me in a sweet voice and I could see Vicky smiling profoundly a few meters behind him. “I do…” I said trying to remember. “Oh God!” I said suddently. “We were talking on the phone when the… accident happened.” I said and Niall nodded his head with a tight smile. “Well, you two have a lot catching up to do.” Vicky said and grabbed her bag from the chair. “And I can run by the house to get you some stuff. I’ll be back in an hour, ok?” she told me and kissed my cheek. I nodded at her and she gave me a warm smile. “Take good care of her until I get back.” She told Niall and exited the room.

   I gave Niall a soft smile and he turned to leave his jacket at the end of my bed. “Ok, I’ll say it again and don’t take it the wrong way. I’m really glad to see you, but what are you doing here?” I asked him and he went to sit to the chair of my left. “I came to see you.” He said with an extremely natural tone in his voice. “You took a plane from the other end of the planet and you flew here just to see me… and you magically knew I was in the hospital…?” I asked him suspiciously. He let out a small chuckle at my expression and relaxed in his chair. “Not exactly, I’ll admit I had some help…” he said like that was a satisfying answer. “Ok Horan. Take it from the start.” I said and relaxed my posture waiting for him to explain exactly what had happened. “Ok…” he said and took a deep breath. “You probably don’t remember, but I called you that day cause I wanted to ask you if you wanted to come spend next week with me. I was arranging my tickets to London and I wanted to get you one too. I wasn’t sure about your schedule and I thought I should give a call fist…” he said and I could trace sadness in his voice. “I was about to tell you all these, but… then I heard… the crush, the people shouting… I didn’t know what was happening until the ambulance arrived at the scene…” he trailed off and looked down. “Oh, Niall I’m sorry…” I said feeling bad that he had to hear all these. “You are sorry?! I should be the one apologizing! Me and my stupid plans! I should have hung up the minute you told me you were driving…” he said and although he wasn’t looking at me any more I knew that sadness and remorse was all over his face. “Please don’t do that.” I told him in a soft voice. “It wasn’t your fault. The van in front of me went off its road. And even if the call had distracted me, I’m the one responsible. I shouldn’t have answered it.” I went on and he stayed silent. I knew I couldn’t convince him and I decided I wouldn’t push it further. “Well no matter what, I’m sorry you had to hear all these over the phone. It must be really bad to listen to everything that went down and knowing what had exactly happened…” I told him with a sad voice too trying not to let him see how hard it was for me too to remember everything that had happened. “Well, when I heard the serins I knew something had happened. I just hopped you weren’t hurt…” he said and I wanted to hug him and tell him I was ok now, but I physically couldn’t. “I had been calling you for more than an hour and when you didn’t log in late at night I started panicking a bit.” He said and it was obvious he had panicked more than a bit. “I was out all night from the painkillers and my phone is probably smashed into thousand pieces somewhere in Paris.” I explained and gave him a tight smile. “Yeah, I figured…” he said and nodded with his head. “But how you… how did you find me?” I asked noticing he hadn’t told me yet how he ended up standing in front of me. “Oh, I asked Vicky.” He said like he just noticed he hadn’t told me about it yet. “I DMed her on twitter last night… Luckily she replied quickly!” he said with a grateful smile. “And the rest is history… I grabbed the first plane to Paris and here I am.” He said and I couldn’t help but smile at his actions. “You left your tour and everyone only to see if I was alive?” I asked and the urge to hug or even touch him was even bigger now. “Kind of… We have a break for a few weeks, but basically yes… I didn’t even tell the lads why and when I was leaving. They found out when I was on the plane.” He said and I couldn’t help myself. “They‘ve been calling me for the past hour nonstop.” He said and showed me your phone. I stretched my hand and he gave it to me. Six missed calls and me seven messages, all from the boys. The phone started ringing in my hand and I turned to see a smiling Niall. “Speak of the devil…” I told him teasingly and gave him his phone back. I knew it was Harry calling him and I motioned him to answer it. “Hey mate.” Niall said and I could hear someone shouting from the other end of the line. “Yeah I’m fine. Yes, she is.” Niall said and gave me a look. “I’m still alive Styles!” I shouted for him to hear me and Niall let out a chuckle. “Wait, wait… I’m putting you on speaker phone…” he said and put the device between us. “Hey girl!” Louis said with his signature voice. “Hey Helen!” Harry followed him. “Hello guys.” I said back pleased to hear them both. “How are you feeling dear?” Harry asked politely. “A bit sore, but I’ll be fine.” I told them. “Glad to hear sweetie.” Harry said and Louis followed him. “Do they know anything after all these French guys!? They certainly don’t know how to drive at least are they taking good care of you?” Louis asked me and I let out a small laugh at his comment. “I’m literally a big pile of stiches guys!” I told them and we all laughed. “In that case we give you the permission to turn Nialler into your personal nurse Betty.” Harry said and we laughed again. “Mmm… I’ll certainly find something to keep him busy with.” I joked and gave Niall a look. I was glad to see him smiling again. “Don’t worry about him guys, I’ll take good care of him.” I went on and laughed at the irony of my own phrase. “We are not worried for him dear…but the thing was, one minute he was in his room and a sec later he was gone,  no calls, no text, nothing…” Harry explained. “And when he finally picked up, we thought you were literally dying!” Louis continued. “I did never say you were dying.” Niall told me and I could help but smile. “So he was that much scared, huh?” I asked with a curious smile. “Scared?! He was about to shit himself girl!” Louis said and I laughed hard enough that my stiches started to hurt. “That’s it. Good bye guys!” Niall said and rolled his eyes. “Bye boys.” I said as Louis went on teasing Niall “Don’t worry Nialler we will love you even if you have smelly pants.”.  “Bye Helen. Niall give a call to the others too ok?” Harry said and I had a huge smile on my face at that point. “Ok, I’ll call them later.” Niall said and they hung up. 


	15. Chapter 15

It was eleven o’clock, and I knew who it was from the second I heard the knock on the door. Every day at eleven sharp, he came and stayed with me in the small hospital room, until some nurse asked him to leave, around nine. Niall pushed the door open and came into my hospital room as the nurse fixed my blankets back over me. “Hey…” I greeted him as he came closer to the bed. “Hi!” he said with a huge smile. “Em… should I come back in a couple-” he started saying while eying the nurse carefully. “No, it’s fine. She was changing my bandages but it’s all done.” I cut him off. “Oh, good.” He said and placed his backpack on the chair on my wright. “How are you feeling today?” he asked the same question he asked me every day, but somehow managed to genuinely mean it every single one of those times. “Mostly the same but a bit better too. I feel like I’m getting my energy back.” I said with a huge smile. He smiled back with the same amount of content on his features. “I think they will discharge me tomorrow.” I went on secretly wishing I didn’t have to spend one more day in the hospital. “They actually will.” I heard Vicky saying as she came into the room. “Good morning Niall!” she greeted him and gave me some hospital documents. “Good morning!” Niall replied politely as I went through the papers. “It was about time!” I said half a second later. “I’m getting discharged!” I said and let out a relieved breath. “What time can you go home?” Niall asked me, equally excited as he took  his laptop off his bag. “Around noon.” I answered and flushed him a pleased smile. “Fuck.” V said in a low but pissed voice from her corner and she rushed out from the room, making Niall look at me with a troubled face. “She has a problem with her office.” I explained at him feeling bad for her at the moment. “Where is she working really?” Niall asked curiously as he put his laptop on the small table that I used for my meals. “She works for a magazine in London. But it hasn’t been long since they hired her and she has to send her work by e-mail all this week; and obviously it’s not working out so well for her…” I told him and pointed to her barging out. Niall gave me a sympathetic smile and opened the laptop, placing it close to me. I gave him a questioning look and he smiled too eagerly. “What is it?” I asked him and he gave me a sweet smile. “I want to show you something.” He said and searched his folders for a certain file. “It’s not complete yet. But they sent it last night and I… I’d like to see what you’ll think of it.” he said and clicked on a video file. It was their new video. Niall had sent me the song weeks ago, but he didn’t mention that the video was almost ready. I had already loved their upcoming song and I hoped the video was everything I imagined while listening to track. It was nothing like what I had in my mind but it was equally good. “It’s very good…” I said almost to myself and moved my head along the rhythm as the video ended. “So you liked it?” Niall asked me with a huge smile across his face. “I may not study video, photography and all that stuff but my little artistic skills and instincts are convinced it will be a great success.” I told him honestly and turned to face him. Our eyes locked and suddenly remember how much I had missed him. “That means it’s really good!” he said and looked like he was relieved. I just shook my head in agreement when I heard the Skype call sound coming from his laptop. We both turned to look at the screen. Niall hesitated for a sec and turned to answer Zayn’s call. “Morning!” Niall said a bit too loud for my ears at the moment as Zayn’s camera went on “Hi mate! Did you see-” Zayn started saying walking towards the camera when I and Niall both noticed he only had his briefs on. “Zayn! Pants mate! I’m not alone!” Niall said and I let out a small laugh. “Good morning Zayn!” I said still too amused by the incident. “Fuck, Niall! Why didn’t you say anything?!” Zayn said and disappeared out of the room. I let one more laugh escape my lips as Niall enabled our camera too. “Morning Helen. Sorry about that.” Zayn said as he took a seat in front of his camera again. “It’s fine, we didn’t see anything don’t worry.” I said still smiling fondly with Zayn’s shy face. “How are you? Are you still at the hospital?” he asked me politely. “I’m getting better. They’ll let me leave tomorrow.” I said as something started buzzing on the screen again. “Man… it’s Liam.” Niall said to me and Zayn. “I hope he has his pants on.” Zayn said quietly as Niall added Liam to our call. “Bit early Nialler, huh?!” Liam teased Niall. “Oh! Hello Helen!” he added quickly noticing me next to Niall. “Hello dear! How are you?” I asked honestly. “Fine girl. How are you? Is he doing a good job?” Liam asked with a small laugh. “We can always send you another of us if he is no help. There are still four left.” Liam joked and we all started laughing at his comment. “No, I think I’ll keep this one.” I told them and glanced Niall with the corner of my eye. “You heard the lady boys… she made her decision…” Niall teased them and gave them a funny look. We all laughed as Liam went on. “Zayn mate, are you naked?” he asked and he made a funny face at the camera and Niall went into hysteric laughs. “Oh Gosh! I’m dressed! Ok?!” Zayn said and stood from his chair, to show us that he was wearing his sweatpants. “Now you are…” I said in a low voice but Liam had obviously heard me and went into hysteric laughs just like Niall. “Oh! You saw Zayn’s willy?!” Liam asked between his laughs. “Nah… Just his underwear…” I continued still amused from the situation. “You are a lucky he had these at least on.” Liam told me still teasing Zayn. “Hey! I’m not Harry mate! Of course I had something on…” Zayn said and rolled his eyes. “Why does Harry answer a video calls with his goods hanging in open air?” I asked teasingly and started laughing when I noticed that everyone else was not. “Pretty much…” Liam said in a casual tone. “Every time.” Zayn added and I looked Niall wide-eyed. “He has a good excuse most of the time.” He said with a smile. “Please don’t ever call him with me around.” I said and shook my head while others laughed at my phrase. “Man!” Liam said still laughing. “Helen, you are definitely the best girl we’ve ever meet!” Liam said too amused by my comment. “Hey! Watch it there young man. Don’t you have like, two sisters?! Don’t they get any credits?” I told him with a tease. “Oooh, snap!” Zayn said and Liam laughed again. “Good one. Good point, girl! Yeah, after them.” He told me still smiling. “Then, I’m humbled by your comment sir!” I said and lowered my head pretending to bow. We all let out a small laugh and turned to look at Niall. I gave me the sweetest smile I have seen in days. He was so pleased at that moment that it was like his face was radiating with happiness. “So Nialler, you showed her the video?” Zayn asked, interrupting my thoughts. “That’s why I opened the computer mate…” he replied and shook my head in agreement. “Oh, and we barged in. Sorry guys…” Liam apologized. “Oh, no,no…” I started saying but Niall continued. “She managed to see it. You called the minute it ended.” Niall went on. “If you logged more often we wouldn’t be so annoying!” Zayn said quickly and I felt a bit bad for keeping Niall away from his friends. “Zayn!” Liam said and if he could I was sure he would have hit his leg under the table to stop talking. “He has other things on his mind… Don’t listen to him…” Liam added quickly. “Zayn, I promise I’ll give you Niall back very soon.” I said like I was whispering to his ear and winked at him. He let out a small laugh as Niall said “Zayn is always whining.”. “I’m not.” Zayn said back and Liam rolled his eyes. “Let the kids fight and tell us what you thought about the clip, dear…” Liam told me and I chuckled with his reaction. “I really liked. It’s very good and it’s just the rough cut. Seriously now… Teen Choice, VMAs… you will definitely get every single one of them!” I told them honestly and noticed that everyone was listening to me. “We hope so too…” Zayn said and Liam nodded in agreement. “You don’t have to worry, they’ll love it.” I said and flushed a smile at Niall. “Good, good… Happy to hear that someone else, outside of the band, liked it as well.” Liam commented and Zayn let out surprised ‘Ah!’ like he remembered something. “Niall! David was looking for you mate!” Zayn said wide-eyed. “Yeah I know. We talked last night don’t worry.” Niall reassured him with a chuckle. “Oh, good! Cause I forgot…” Zayn said and made a funny face. “Zayn? Are the vocals ready?” Liam asked and I knew there was no point in trying to understand what they were talking about. “Yeah. They called me yesterday.” Zayn said and I was about to tune out of the conversation. “Great. I think I’ll leave you guys. Have some phone calls to make…” Liam said looking directly in to the camera. “Yeah, I’ll go get something to eat too…” Zayn said and rubbed his eyes. “Ok, lads.” Niall said and went to push the end button. “Goodbye guys!” I said and waved at them both. “Bye Helen.” Zayn said and a ‘Get well soon!’ by Liam followed before the call ended. Niall looked like he was about to say something when Vicky came back in. She wasn’t less pissed or freaked than when she was when she had left the room. “They didn’t get the e-mail?” I asked as soon as she sat down. “They did. But they are dick heads! I’m sorry Niall, but I’m too pissed to watch my language.” She said and went to search something in her bag. “Don’t even mention it. I would have been much worse in your place.” Niall joked and managed to get her to smile a bit. “God… I literally want to kill them! They can’t follow the simplest instructions!” she said and sat at the left side of my bed. “V?” I said and gave her a stern look. She knew what I was about to say and opened her mouth to protest but my look made her change her mind. “V. I’m not a baby. How many times do I have to say it!? If you need to go, leave for God’s sake. I can take care of myself.” I told her for the second time in the past two days. “No, you can’t. You are hurt and am not going put a job above you. I’m not leaving you alone. How many times do I have to say it?” she said back and I rolled my eyes at her comment. “It’s not  _a_  job, it’s  _the_  job. And how you think I’ll feel when you’ll get fired because I bumped into a van?” I asked a bit pissed at this point that she didn’t even consider what I was saying. “It was an accident. Accidents happen and jobs can be replaced. I’m not leaving you on your own.” She said firmly again and I was about to answer back when Niall spoke up. “What if she wasn’t on her own?” he asked out of the blue making us both give him a puzzled and serious look. “Sorry to intervene… I don’t want to overstep here or anything…” he started a bit hesitantly as if one of us was about to yell at him. “…but what if… she wasn’t alone when you left?” he asked Vicky and I was sure that this sentence would make me more pissed than I was with her. “Ok… that could be a debatable option… go on…” she told him in a skeptical tone. “Well, I am here… and I… I could take…” he started hesitantly. “I mean I could help with anything you might need…” Niall told me and looked between him and Vicky in disbelief. “No way.” I said in a firm tone and I could see Niall’s face instantly fell. “You both have lives and obligations. I’m not gonna hold back anyone because I wasn’t careful for five stupid seconds.” I said in a more certain tone than before. It hurt me to see Niall so disappointed but I wasn’t gonna turn anyone into my own personal nurse for something I brought to myself. “So you want, and most importantly, you can, stay with her for the next weeks… Are you sure? I mean don’t you have to go do… I don’t know… anything band related…?” Vicky asked Niall politely ignoring completely what I had just said. “I’m sure. I have no obligations for the next month, and I want to stay-… I want to help, if I can.” He said and turned to give me a glance. “But if you are not ok with that… It’s fine really…” he said I knew he wasn’t fine when I denied his help. I let out a breath. “Ok, missy.” Vicky said and I gave her a stern look. “Stop playing tough with me, I know you better than that.” She said with a smile and Niall let out a small chuckle. “It’s me or him. Your choice.” She told me and I shook my head in disbelief. “God! Why are you doing this to me?” I said and let my head fall in the pillows. “ _My God! Are you stupid or something? Stop playing hard to get and say yes to the poor guy! What else do you want him to do to show you that he wants to be here with you? To help you. Get on his knees and start begging?_ ’’ Vicky started saying in Greek and I stared at the ceiling. “ _Come on now; he is about to go into depression. He thinks you don’t want him to stay with you_.’’ She went on and I lifted my head and gave her a questioning look. I knew she was right and I turned to look at Niall’s disappointed and puzzled face. “Are you one hundred per cent sure you don’t have to go anywhere for the next weeks?” I asked him again looking directly in the eyes. “I am!” he said and I could see his goofy smile lingering. I let one more breath escape. “Fine Niall will stay with me.” I said and instead of one, two huge smiles filled the room. “Will you return to your office now, please?” I asked Vicky and she nodded contended with my decision.


	16. Chapter 16

 I felt the soft fabric of my pillowcase as I snuggled my face deeper in my pillows. I wasn’t awake and I wasn’t asleep either. I wanted to go back into deep sleep mode but half of my brain was too freaked out to rest. I had no energy to open my eyes but I knew where I was, what time it probably was and I knew why I was half awake. I couldn’t feel my arms. I knew very well that I had probably turned in my sleep and put my full weight on them for so long that had gone numb or something, but all the logical explanations of the world couldn’t make that freaked out half of my brain relax. It wasn’t the first time that I felt this way. I knew the feeling and the thoughts as well, as I knew what I had to do in order not to go in full mental breakdown right then and there. I pulled my torso up and sat on the bed with my eyes still firmly closed. I was breathing heavily as I felt the blood flowing back on my arms. I started caressing them making sure everything was in place. “Helen?” I heard Niall’s clear and concerned voice as I started hesitantly to patted my legs tracing my knees with my fingers. “Helen, are you ok?” he asked again. I just shook my head ‘yes’ as I remembered I still had my eyes closed. “Hey, is there something wrong?” he asked again in a low voice and I felt his hand on my back. I slowly opened my eyes and turned to face him. “No.” I said in a husky voice. “I’m fine.” I lied with my hands still on my knees. He let out a deep breath and looked me in the eyes. He was measuring my face and I was measuring his. I knew he could see behind my poker face, and I tried my best to calm myself down. “Ok.” He said with too much disappointment in his voice as he stood up and headed out of the room. “Ok, I’m just gonna say it…” he said and turned to face me from the door. “If you don’t want to talk about it, that’s ok. But please, stop. Stop…lying. Stop lying to me at least.” He said and there was hurt in his voice. I closed my eyes and let out a deep breath. “I’m not lying.” I said in a low voice. He run his hand through his hair and rolled his eyes. “I’m not lying. It  _will_  be fine.” I said again and my eyes met his. “Why do you do that? Why you keep it all inside you?” he said and looked away. I had no idea what to tell him; I myself barely knew what was going on. “I’m not stupid. You’ve been waking up like this every day this week. You… you zone out from our conversations and start having this very small trembling, or shivering or something… You watch your every step…” he said and I although these were all true I had never thought someone else would have noticed. “I’m not stupid. I can see there is something wrong.” He said again and came to sit next to me. I didn’t say anything, I just looked at him. “Why don’t you tell me what’s the problem?” he said in a stoic voice full of concern. I small halfhearted chuckle escaped my lips. “The last time  _you_  had a problem, I had to receive a call from Harry fucking Styles himself, to learn about it… so cut me some slack here…” I tried to joke and his lips formed a small smile. “So let’s not repeat history and just tell me.” He said and waited for me to explain. “Argh… What do you want me to tell you? You think I know exactly what’s going on?” I said in pure honesty. “I wake up like this every day cause I can’t feel my arms sometimes… and suddenly I’m afraid I dislocated them. So I get up to try to fix whatever I can before I start feeling the pain. Even if I know they are just numb from the way I fell asleep, I freak out and I can’t help it! That’s why I’ve been patting my knees for the past ten seconds. To make sure they are in place. It sounds stupid… but that stupid little thought sends actual shivers down my spine every time something happens and I remember how it felt when I hit my knees… or any other injuries for that matter…” I said and looked at my hands. He stayed silent. “There. Now I’m all vulnerable and stuff… And for your information it has happened before. And I continued my life without being a huge baby to anyone…” I went on and I knew I was building a wall around me at that point. And Niall was at the opposite part of it. “Stop.” He said firmly and looked in a way I couldn’t take my eyes off of him. “It’s not stupid. It’s not you being vulnerable. It’s the way you deal with it.” he said still looking at my eyes. “I’m not an expert. Whenever I get injured I blame my body, my genes, my mum… someone. You blame your actions.” He said honestly. “Our actions don’t always have a good outcome. Sometimes we hurt others, other times we hurt ourselves. So what? Are you gonna blame yourself for living? For having fun? For dancing? And then what? You’ll lock yourself up in cage and never try anything again?” he said and I noticed my breathing had got harder. “The girl I met in that coffee shop some time ago, took my breath away. You know why? Because she was full of life.” He went on and I could feel this, was all too much for me. “That girl was damaged too.” I said timidly in a low voice. “No. She had seen worse and she had outgrown them. She wasn’t that easy to take down.” He said and he reached for my face. “This isn’t vulnerability. This you kicking ass at surviving in that crap that we call life.” He said and wiped a tear that was strolling down my cheek. I nodded affirmatively with my head and closed my eyes. More tears run down my cheeks and Niall turned and hugged me. He just held me tighter. “One step at a time… ok?” he asked me and I shook my head affirmatively wiping my eyes with the back of my hand. “So… I took your breath away, huh?” I asked with a small smile. “Yes, you did.” He admitted and smiled fondly. I wanted to stay like this for as long as I ever could. But I knew that in a few days all I would be left with would be a bunch of memories, some jokes and maybe a t-shirt that got left behind. Just like if he could feel my sad thoughts, he hugged me tighter and rocked me tenderly. I kept a firm grip on him and he left a long tender kiss on my hair. “Hum… I have an idea…” he said and loosened his grip on me. “I think I know something that might cheer you up…” he said and winked at me playfully. I let a small chuckle escape as he got off the bed. “If you are about to make pancakes the flour is the top self.” I told him with a sweet smile. “Mmm…pancakes? Not exactly what I was going for but food is always a good idea.” he said and came to hover with his body over mine. “Please don’t make a mess.” I said in a sweet voice and closed the small distance between our lips. Our lips locked and although it was just a small simple kiss there was something I hadn’t noticed before in it. No, it wasn’t the passion or the lust within it. It was soft and careful and with no rush.  _Was that love?_  I traced my lips with my fingers lost in my thoughts as Niall got out of the room.

   A few seconds later, I put a small jacket on and headed to the kitchen. I crossed my arms on my chest and leaned on the door frame observing Niall running around my small kitchen. “I think you would complete the recipe faster if you looked at the ingredients.” I teased him. He took his eyes of his phone and gave me a smile. “I couldn’t find the eggs.” He said with a huge smile and put his phone away. I rolled my eyes and retrieved the eggs from the fridge. “They were in the fridge.” I said as I placed them on the counter and eyed Niall with the corner of my eye. He just gave me an innocent smile and started to mix everything in a big bowl. “You want me to put more flour there?” I asked trying to help. “No, it’s fine.” He said still too amused for just making pancakes. “You want me to add the milk?” I asked again as I picked the carton. “Nop!” he said cheerfully. “Put the pan on?” I tried again. “No. You go sit. I’ll do the cooking.” He said and pointed with his head towards my sofa. I gave him a puzzled look. “You’ll do everything on your own. You want me to just sit… and do nothing…” I said still trying to find the catch in his phrase. “Yeap. That’s the plan.” He said and gave me a classical Horan smile. “Ok, then! I’ll just sit… and do nothing.” I said and started to walk away from him. “You can put so music on…” he suggested and I got my laptop of the table and headed to the couch. “…or I don’t know… check what’s trending on twitter… or tumblr…” he went on as he made a mess out of my kitchen stuff. I let out a silent laugh at his sight and opened a new tab on my computer. “Ok… twitter trends…” I said as I logged in. I scrolled down a bit and started to read the trending topics. “Mmm… something in german… and a hashtag mention someone beaut-” I started saying but stopped midsentenced as I saw what was trending next. “And hashtag Helen get better soon.” I said and turned to look at Niall that was standing behind me by that point. “Aaa, we are not on top yet…” he said with some remorse as he leaned to get a better look at my screen. “Niall?” I said with a smile and eyed him. “What did you do?” I asked still smiling. “Me? Nothing… Just asked some fellows for a favor.” He said with a sweet smile his face inches of mine. I shook my head, not believing what he had done at the same time. “You are unbelievable…” I said and looked at his eyes. “Did it work at least?” he asked and gave me the loving smile I had seen. “It did.” I said and I could barely hold myself together that moment. “Good.” He said and gave me a kiss that was different from the others for the second time that day. My mind went blank and I could only think of the boy right in front of me that moment.

 

   “No, I’m full. I don’t want another one…” I said with a tired voice as Niall offered me one more piece of pancakes. He was spread on my coach and I was laying between his legs on his torso, with my laptop on top of me. It’s been an hour since Niall tweeted,  _“Ok crazy mofos HUGE favor to ask! Someone I really care about isn’t feeling well :(  Can you help make #Helengetbettersoon #TT?”_  and it was still the top trend. The rest of the guys had tweeted too to help the trend. “ _#Helengetbettersoon, #Helengetbettersoon , #Helengetbettersoon , #Helengetbettersoon , #Helengetbettersoon  Any Better now?”_ Harry had joked along with Louis who had uploaded teasingly  _“You must have a very lousy nurse :P But please #Helengetbettersoon ”_ , Liam and Zayn were more discreet and polite.  _“#Helengetbettersoon  You will be fine in no time ;)”_  Zayn had send, “Our fans can do ANYTHING!!! Even  _#Helengetbettersoon  :D”_  Liam had posted and I was taken aback from everyone’s concern. “It’s still on top…” I said with a smile. “I’m sure it will be for a couple more hours…” he said with a chuckle too. “Haven’t they driven you crazy yet?” I asked him teasingly. “From the questions?” he said with a small laugh. “Well I can’t blame them. You can’t just through a name out like that and wait for them not to ask questions.” He said back and I nodded. “Yeah, I know… What are they asking?” I asked out of curiosity. “Mmm… many things…” He said as he scrolled down his mentions on his phone. “If you have a twitter… if you are blond…if you are a real person…” he said with a laugh and I tuned to look at him amused by all that. “…if you are from Mullingar… and… if you are my girlfriend…” he said and looked me in the eyes. I could feel my cheeks blushing.  _Was he asking what I thought he was asking?_  I thought as I tried not to go into complete shock. “And… are you gonna answer them?” I asked hesitantly, trying to sound as casual as I could. “I definately don’t want to give them your twitter account… but I would like to tell them, that you are very real… and an amazing person…and that I would like to have you all for myself and never ever share you again.” He confessed and although I could see he was a bit uncomfortable, he looked relieved too. I bit my lower lip not knowing what to tell him. I stared at his eyes and measured his face. I wanted to scream and hug him. “Agh!…Why? Why you have to do that to me?” I asked and run my hand through my curls. “Do what…?” he asked still smiling sweetly at me. “What?! You really can’t tell what?” I eyed him. “You think this is easy for me? You think it’s easy for me not to jump on you and kiss you until you are unconscious just for even suggesting, what you said a minute ago?!” I continued still measuring his expression. “Oh, please jump!” he said with a small laugh and grabbed my hands. “Well I still couldn’t physically do it… but…” I started a sentence I had no idea how to end. “Niall… Haven’t we already had this conversation?” I asked and crooked my head to the side. “Things have changed… I have…changed.” He said still smiling too eagerly. “I don’t want you to change your life for me. You have a certain  _life-style_  and…” I started saying in a low voice and he gave me a stern look. “Helen. One step at a time.” He said and my mumbling was shushed. “Do you want to be my girlfriend?” he said and measured every inch of my face for the answer. “Do you  _want_? Yes or no. Don’t think about anything else. Do you want to?” he continued and I let out a small breath. “Yes I want to.” I confessed. “We’ll figure it out then…” he said and before I could blink his lips were on mine, kissing me again and again. 


	17. Chapter 17

“Do you want to be my girlfriend?” “Yes I want to.” “We’ll figure it out then…”. I couldn’t stop replaying the conversion in my mind. Yeah…“We’ll figure it out then…”…Figure it out… definitely… I thought ironically and continued staring out of the window. He said you’ll figure it out and you thought it would be a piece of cake?! Yeah… piece of cake… I wanted to start cursing and yelling at myself for being that naïve but I just took a deep breath and stayed silent. Niall reached for my hand and gave it a little squeeze. I closed my fingers around his palm but didn’t take my eyes of the road. “We’ll figure it out then…”… His words echoed in my head once again. When you hear those words like most girls in this planet, you instinctively think ‘This is it! I’m about to live the dream’ and I wasn’t any exception t that rule. But then came the reality slap! There you go girl! Enjoy! I had no idea if I was pissed any more or overwhelmed or fed-up or exhausted or simply disappointed, at everyone and everything; including my own self. Niall parked the car in front of Louis’ house and we both got out. Harry and Louis wanted him to listen to some new lyrics or Harry wanted to sing something to Niall… I couldn’t bother at the moment with their job so I just followed Niall silently lost in my own thoughts. He grabbed my hand again and led me to the huge front door. I turned to look at him and tried to give him a sweet smile. He smiled back and pulled me closer so that he could give a quick kiss to my right cheek. I wasn’t mad at him and I wanted him to now that. I moved closer and leaned on his left side, supporting my head on his shoulder. When he wrapped his hand around my torso and kissed my hair, I knew he wasn’t mad at me either. Maybe it will be ok… I thought to myself and lifted my head as Harry opened the door. “Hey!” he greeted us. “Hey mate.” Niall said and I followed him with an exacerbated “Hi, Harry.”. “So, how did it go?” He asked eagerly and gave me a small welcome hug. “Bad.” I said in a sad voice and started to take my jacket off. “Well, it didn’t go that bad… but it didn’t go well either…” Niall rushed to say. It had hardly been a month since Niall had asked me that freaking question and the boys’ management team had already a say on the issue. “Ok. What did they say?” Harry asked and I knew he wanted to hear every detail about mine and Niall’s meeting today with their management, but I wasn’t in the mood for a replay. “They were of course opposed to the idea-” “Em, sorry. Can I… Can I use the bathroom?” I asked Harry, cutting Niall midsentence. “Sure. It’s the second door down the hall.” Harry said and pointed me the right direction. “Thanks.” I said and headed to the white door on my right while trying to remember how things got so complicated in the blink of an eye. One minute I was in my couch relaxing in Niall’s arms and the other everything around us was a total mess. People started tweeting harmless rumors and suddenly Niall’s management bureau want us to never be seen together again, so that he maintained the image of the single and too available hot guy. I could see how my presence would disturb all that and I offered to step aside and lay low so that he wouldn’t have any problems. But Niall was one hundred percent against it and he wouldn’t even wanna hear about the scenario of us existing only behind closed doors. I didn’t know if it was me or he was just too fed up with whoever was giving all these ultimatums at him, but I certainly couldn’t blame him for saying no to them. What’s even the point of me being his girlfriend if I couldn’t even go for a walk at the park with him? I felt like I was a fish out of the water. I literally had no clue about these PR stuff. When they told Niall I had to have a meeting with the board in London, I thought it was just a typical thing. I booked an appointment, took a week off my university –so that I could spend some more time with Niall- and boarded to the next train to London. I had already spent three days in London and I think it’s pointless to say things are nothing like what I had imagined. I washed my hands and tried to clear my head before I got out of the bathroom. Niall and Harry weren’t where I had left them, so I started walking further in to the house. I entered what was supposed to be the living room, which actually looked like four living rooms combined, and left my jacket on a white sofa. I kept walking, admitting to myself that the house was very well decorated, and I entered what was probably the biggest kitchen I’ve ever seen. “Hello there!” a voice came from behind me starting me a little. “Oh, hey!” I said and pivoted on my heels to face the all too familiar young man. “You have a very nice house.” I told Louis and he gave me a polite smile. “Thanks. Quite big, huh?” he asked me back and I noticed he looked more relaxed than every other time I had seen him. “Definitely!” I said raising my eyebrows at him. He laughed a bit with my reaction and turned towards the fridge. “You want anything to drink?” he offered as he opened one of the two doors. “Do you have any sparkling water or soda water or just water…” I said in a bit tired voice as I took a seat at the kitchen table. “Yes, we have…” he said and handed me a cool bottle with a sympathetic smile. “Niall and Harry are upstairs. You can go if you want, but they won’t be long now…” He said and retrieved another bottle from the fridge. “I don’t want to disturb them. I’ll find Niall later.” I said with no color in my voice and took a sip of my drink. “I thought I could maybe lounge a bit at your small living room.” I said and turned to glance at a huge sofa. “Of course. You can even take a nap if you want to…” Louis said with a smile and took a sip from his beverage too. “Don’t tempt me, because I might actually do it…” I said back and I was sure at this point that all the anger had started to exhaust me. Louis gave another sympathetic smile. “It was that bad, huh?” he asked with a concerned tone and we both knew very well what he was referring to. “Are you any familiar with the word ambush? Or total disaster?” I asked ironically and he let out a small chuckle. “I’m more familiar with them than you could even imagine.” He said back I felt like I had found the right person to discuss my problem with. “Believe me girl. If someone knows what a pain in the ass management can be, then that’s definitely me.” He said and gave me a stern look. “God… I was so naïve.” I told him and run a hand through my hair. “Nah… you just don’t know.” He said back. “None of us did. We all learned the hard way.” He continued and I was sure I had found the perfect person to help me at this moment. “They gave you a contract, didn’t they?” he asked and I nodded my head. “Yeah, they did. I have it my bag. I have until the end of the week to take it back to them.” I said surging a bit at the thought. “Before I got here, I thought they just wanted to check me out. You know… to see if I am some weird teenager with no brains in her head. And maybe give me some guide-lines… suggestions or something…” I said and shook my head in disbelief. “…and then I walked in there… they started interrogating me like… like I had just committed a crime…” I said with a small chuckle. “I had no idea what the hell was going on… I was so embarrassed. It was ridiculous. I am sure I made a total fool of myself.” I said and took on more sip from my soda. “I’ll admit that was a bit naïve of you. You didn’t tell them anything of great importance or agreed or signed anything you might want to take back, right?” he said with more concern than before. “No, I don’t think so. I told them stuff -that they had no right to ask- but nothing I was ashamed of or I would never tell anyone.” I said and he looked relieved. “Good. Cause these sessions are usually recorded and they could hold it back at you.” He said and I felt a bit bad for him too at the moment. “They really gave you a hard time, didn’t they?” I asked hesitantly. “They did, but it was my fault too things went that way. I was so thrilled with everything that was happening… our first cd, tour, the boys, the funs… I was having the time of my life and I refused to stop the party for a silly contract. My mind was elsewhere… and I didn’t pay much attention to what I was signing.” He said with a tight smile and I didn’t know what I could say at the moment. “Everyone was like that back when we started… but you are not like that. I can tell you that your brains are exactly where they need to be.” He continued and gave me a reassuring glance. “I think you don’t have nothing to be afraid of, girl. Really, I was much more clueless than you are. And if I managed to get through all the crap they pulled at me from time to time, then you definitely can too.” He said in a determined voice. “I’m not so sure.” I replied hesitantly. “Look, these guys don’t give a shit if it’s you or Niall or me or a homeless guy…” he said with a serious look in his eyes. “All they care is their income. As long as their money is secured you can… go have babies with the guy if you want to…” he continued advising me when I felt a pair of hands on my back. “Are we having babies already?” Niall joked as Harry came into the kitchen. “Yeah…we can’t even figure out if I am your girlfriend, but we can go straight to the babies part…” I said sarcastically and rolled my eyes at Niall. “Well Theo turned out pretty good.” Niall joked and started hugging me. “We can start practicing right away…” He continued and gave me small kisses on my neck while I rolled my eyes at him again. “Or not…” Louis said and I let out a small chuckle at his expression. “Who knows? We might enjoy it…” Louis was saying when I said sarcastically ‘Or not.’, “… don’t you have a house nearby?” Louis continued and we all let a small laugh at his comment. “In fact I do.” Niall said with a proud smile for his new apartment. “What? You finished already?” I asked curiously, looking between Niall and Harry. “Yes, we did.” Harry answered me with a huge smile. “You two lovebirds can now fly to your little cozy nest.” He continued with an expression that I had only seen before on a three year-old girl talking about Rapunzel and the blond prince. “Harry.” Louis said in a very firm voice while I glared at Harry. “What?” he asked looking truly innocently at Louis. “No. Just no.” Louis told him back and gave him a very stern look as I let a small chuckle at Harry’s disappointed expression. “Harry gave me the tracks and I can do the rest from my laptop at home” Niall told me and I got up from the chair. “Let me get my stuff” I told Niall and we all headed to the front door. “Bye lads.” Niall said and exited the house. “Bye guys.” I told them and gave both of them a small hug. “And Harry honey, if you ever call us lovebirds again, I’ll show you how I made my big brother cry until he turned twenty.” I told him with a smile and patted his arm. “Ok.” He simply said and gave me an amused smile. “See girl, that’s what I was talking about!” Louis said with pure enthusiasm. “You’ll kick their ass.” He continued and winked at me. “Hope so.” I said back with a smile, believing him a bit more than before.


	18. Chapter 18

“What would you say about ordering Chinese tonight?” I asked as Niall opened the door of his apartment for me. “I’d say it sounds great.” He said with a smile as he tossed his jacket in a nearby chair. “Good. Will you order while I take a shower?” I asked as sweetly as I could. “Sure. What do you want?” He said and gave me a quick peck on the lips. “Chicken noodles with vegetables and whatever else you feel like.” I said with a smile, because I already knew that he would order too many things. “Done.” He said and took his phone out. “Thanks.” I yelled as I climbed the stairs to the bathroom. As usual the hot water worked its magic on me. When I stepped out of the shower, it was like I had washed away all my exhaustion and most of my worries. I put on some leggings and a long warm sweater and walked back down stairs. I walked into the living room and sat next to Niall in his big black sofa. He had his laptop in his lap and I crouched closer to him resting my head on my knees. He turned and gave me a sweet smile and I noticed his face was inches of mine. I smiled back and winked at him. “Mmm… someone smells nice…” Niall said, put his laptop on the table and leaned closer. “Hope that didn’t mean I stink all day long.” I joked and he started to kiss me. “You didn’t.” he said and started leaving kisses on my neck. My lips formed a huge smile and started slowly to lean with my back on the sofa, pulling Niall on top of me. Our lips met again and my hands cupped his face. “I missed that.” he said and hugged me tightly, setting us both side by side on his enormous coach. “I hate to see you… tensed all day.” He said and our eyes met. “Sorry… I couldn’t help it…” I said in a low voice. “I know…” he said and kissed the tip of my nose. “I’m really sorry I’m putting you through this.” He said in low voice too. “They are putting me through this, not you.” I replied and caressed his cheek with my hand. “I know you don’t like it, but I wanna help you in every way possible. Even if that means financially.” He said in a hesitant tone and I gave him a troubled look. “What do you mean?” I asked not understanding how money was the answer to my problem at the moment. “Well… They gave you a contract, so…you’ll need a lawyer sooner or later…” he said and I stayed silent processing what he was telling me. “Let me help this time…” he went on but I still didn’t know what I could answer him. “Unless…you don’t want to… go through with all these…” he said in low and faintly sad voice. “I didn’t say that.” I rushed to tell just to take that small bit of sadness off his face. “I know I’m not in my best mood the past couple of days, but it’s not because I don’t want this to work. I’m trying to adapt, really… I don’t know what I should or shouldn’t do, but I’m honestly trying my best.” I told him and buried my head in his collar bone. “You’re doing fine. We are fine. Don’t worry. It’ll all be over soon.” He said and kissed my hair again. “I know.” I said in a reassuring voice. “Louis seems to think that I can give them a pretty hard time if I want to.” I said with a small chuckle. “I think so too.” He said with a laugh too. “Actually I’m positive, you’ll ‘kick their ass’… or I will…” Niall said and gave me quick kiss. “…or Louis…or Liam… or Zayn…” Niall continued giving me kisses between every name. “…Harry would just yell at them…” Niall joked and I felt like really laughing for the first time in these days.

Time flew by pretty quickly that evening, without realizing it. Niall was at the other room finishing up something for the boys while I laid on the coach, randomly flipping through his TV channels. I put on a channel that played classical music and got up to clean the small table in front of me. I picked our Chinese left overs and put them in the fridge when I glanced at my bag half open, resting on the floor. I picked it up and sat at the kitchen table. I pulled the contract out and started reading it. I said I was to make an effort at this and I wasn’t going back out that easily. By the end of the first page I was determined I couldn’t understand a thing out of this.  _Oh God…_  I thought to myself and pushed the papers away from me. It felt like I was back at school trying my best to understand something I definitely couldn’t.  _But I made it work back at school…_  I almost felt like all my high school struggles were reviving in front of my eyes. I walked to the coach and curled up like a little baby. I was starting to feel sorry for myself when a familiar sound came from Niall’s perfect sound system. It was the music from Raymonda. I knew that track very well, and its choreography too. It was one of the basics in ballet class. It was the first original choreography I’ve ever learned. I really liked that variation of Raymonda. I got up trying to see if I remembered a few of the steps.  _Yes… it went like this from the side… and then back to the corner… and like that towards the crowd…_  I thought to myself as I recalled the steps one by one.  _Yeah, and now you point there…and turn… and quickly there… and then the…_ I held my breath and focus and did the final double big turn for the end of the piece.  _Yes! I did it! I knew it!_  “Yes!” I said too excited I had completed the big turn correctly after all those years. “Hell, yes!” Niall said and clapped from behind taking me off guard. “Hey!” I said with a huge smile. “I didn’t see you… How long have you being there…?” I asked still too excited. “Long enough to see you transform my living room into a ballet studio…” he said teasingly and my smile faded a bit. “Oh…” I started to apologize but he cut me off. “No, I like it! Please by all means don’t stop because of me.” he said with a huge smile on his face. “It was playing Raymonda, and I thought I had forgoten, but I haven’t! And I did the big turn and… well you saw that part!” I told him all too excited again. “Well my thanks to Miss Ramona for this…” he said pointing at my all too enthusiastic face. “It’s Raymonda and it really did the trick.” I said and looked at him with a curious look. “What?” he asked, not able to read my thoughts at the moment. “Would you like to maybe…dance with me?” I offered and he let a small laugh. “Dance ballet?” he asked and it was my turn to laugh. “It’s not that hard.” I said and grabbed him by the hand. “Ok, just stand here your legs together, on hand on your waist the other, like this. Like you’re asking me to dance.” I told him and placed him in the right position. “And stay there.” I told him and took a few steps back. I extended my right foot in front of me and bent the left like I was bowing down in front of Niall. I took his right hand in mine for support and stand in my tip toes forming a perfectly straight line. I gave him a sweet smile and slowly started to lift my left leg as high as possible behind me. He glanced at what I was doing and he looked a bit surprised, but didn’t say anything. “When I count to three you’ll slowly go behind me and you’ll place your hands at my waist.” I told him and I pulled all my concentration together. He nodded and I lifted my left arm above my head. “One…two…three.” I said and slowly tried to free my right from Niall’s. He let go of my hand and started at me for a second while I was trying to stand as still as I could. He slowly followed my instructions and grabbed my waist. “Now hold me still.” I said and bended a bit to the front lifting my leg a bit higher. I opened my arms to the side and closed my legs together. Still on my tip toes I slowly turned in his arms to face an all too excited Niall. I couldn’t help but smile at him. “It wasn’t hard, was it?” I asked and leaned to give him a kiss on the lips. “It was amazing. How could you stay like that?…so still!?” he asked with enthusiasm. “Lots of practice!” I said and leaned in to kiss him again, more passionate this time. “God, I love this Ramayna lady.” He joked and deepened our kiss even more. “It wasn’t Raymonda. It was me.” I said and my hands started travelling down his back. “And by the way, tell your managers I want to meet them tomorrow.” I said casually and started kissing his neck. “Wait. What!?” he said surprised and pulled me back so he could see my face. “I want a meeting.” I said all too casual again. “Please tell me you didn’t sign anything.” He said a bit worried. “Of course not! Haven’t your mum taught you, to be very careful where you put your signature and your…” I told him teasingly as eyes my traveled to his sensitive area. “Yes, she has.” He said as I started kissing his neck again. “Ok, please tell me what happened. What did I miss?… You called someone?… Did anyone come by?” he asked trying to figure out how my mood was so dramatically changed. “Nothing. No and no.” I said with a smile and rested my forehead on his. “Ok… I don’t know what you think of me, but I am not a scared little girl. I was once, because many people tried to convince me I wasn’t good enough.” I started explaining. “Well, guess what? I am pretty good at a lot of things. I’m neither little nor stupid and no one can walk over me anymore. Your management seems to think that I have no brains, and I am about to prove them how wrong they are if they consider themselves the hardest thing that I have ever crossed paths with.” I said, letting all my thoughts out. “You wanna know what I think of you?” he asked me in a low and sweet voice. “I think every day you somehow manage to prove me you are more amazing than I already think you are.” He went on with a blissful smile and picked me up, taking me by surprise. “Like that’s even possible!” he said again and spun me in the air. My lips met his and I knew there was nothing that could bring me down now.


	19. Chapter 19

“They are ready for you.” The secretary told me with a sweet voice. “Thank you.” I replied to her and got up. “Are you sure?” Niall asked me for the third time in the last hour. “Yeap. I have to do this my way, ok? Please trust me on that.” I told him and gave him a reassuring smile. “I trust you.” He said and smiled back. “I’ll be here waiting. Good luck.” He said in sweet voice and I nodded at him. We both knew that I knew very well what I was doing, but couldn’t help being a little nervous. “Hello, gentlemen.” I greeted the board as soon as the secretary let me in the meeting room. “Good morning miss Manou.” They greeted me as I stood a foot away from the table smiling at them politely. I wasn’t going to sit until they respected me enough to offer me a sit at their table. “Mister Horan is not with you today?” one them asked me with a small smile, that made me think he was making fun of me while referring to Niall as my baby sitter in his head. “I don’t think Niall is needed in this meeting, as long as I am concerned of course. But if you want to discuss any issue from our current appointment with him after we are finished, I certainly have no objections to that.” I replied still maintaining my polite smile. “Before we start I would like to inform you that this session is recorded for typical reasons.” One of them said and pressed a small button in the center of the table. “I certainly have nothing against that, as long as I am able to record our conversation with a device of my own as well.” I said and retrieved my phone. They didn’t object to it and the meeting began. “Ok, then. I believe you wanted to talk about the contract we gave you the previous time we met.” The man went on, probably implying I had signed the papers already. “Yes, I would like to return this to you.” I told them still smiling as I left the pack of papers on their desk. “Return?” the other man asked curiously. “Yes. I would like to return this contract to you.” I said again. “So you don’t agree with it and you won’t sign it.” the former said and went through the pages to make sure they were exactly as they had given them to me. “I don’t disagree with all the conditions that are described in this contract, but I couldn’t sign it even if I was to agree with every single term.” I explained them calmly. “What exactly do you mean by couldn’t? Please take a sit.” The man on my right said and pointed me to a chair. “As you are already aware of, English is not my native language. My native language is Greek. So I am opposed to signing any form of agreement I’m not one hundred percent sure of its terms.” I explained to them after I sat at the chair among them. “So you demand from us to compose a contract in Greek only for you?” they asked me back with a hard tone. “No. I am asking you, to translate your contract, this or a new one, in Greek; being aware that my signature will be only in the Greek copy of our agreement. Of course, you can later on translate the Greek signed documents in English for your archives, only if the translation is executed by a public foundation, in your country or mine; the choice of which has to be unanimous among us.” I further explained and I dare say they were a bit surprised by what I was telling them. “Like what kind of foundation you are talking about?” one of them asked. “Like the Greek institute, the American-Hellenic institute or the national institute of translations.” I told them calmly. “Yes, miss, you might not know it, but these procedures are usually executed by authorized lawyers.” The man on my right stated. “I am very well aware of that sir, but to my opinion that would nonetheless complicate the procedure even more. I strongly believe that an individual free-lanced professional is very likely to bring misunderstandings and inaccuracies on the table, for both sides; since his or her motives can easily be altered. However if you insist on that, I am sure we could agree on some form of solution on the subject.” I said firmly and they looked between each other for a second like they didn’t know how to answer to what I proposed. “You know young lady; you are making this more difficult than it has to be.” the man on my left spoke after a while. “Well, sir I am very aware of the nature of the facts and I would like to state that you express an opinion based on your point of view and not mine. Please take into consideration and respect that every one of my suggestions benefit my perspective on the issue. Also, I understand –and please correct me if I am mistaken- that this discussion is conducted in professional terms and I would like to ask you not to address my age until the end of our meeting. Excuse me, but I don’t find it relevant and appropriate for the circumstances.” I said and I was taken bit by surprise there. I knew I could take them down but this came to me more natural than I had ever imagined. After all, I was not wrong at all this was exactly like high school. Bossy people trying to trick you into things you don’t like. They would address all your soft points until you surrendered. Well guys, you need to be more discreet next time cause I’m onto you… “Very well then. Would you like to point us the terms you disagree with in the existing contract.” One of them asked as the other went through the pages again. “Sertainly. I would like paragraphs two, ten and fifteen until twenty to be excluded from our final agreement. In the unlikely case that’s not possible, I would ask for you to either review them having in mind my oppositions to them.” I said and they looked at the paragraphs I was referring to. “You are mensioning a lot of paragraphs here, miss Manou…” the on my right said and gave me a stern look. “That is true.” I replied calmly. “You are asking us to exclude parts of the contract that we consider fundamental…” the one said. “In other terms you are asking a lot from us, here Miss.” The other added. “I’m totally aware of that, but I don’t think how my comforting into your demands will profit my side of the deal.” I told them and they stayed silent for a second. “In terms of full honesty, I truthfully want this deal to be closed with equal advantages for both sides. I have no intention into bringing problems to this table as long as you make an effort to present me with a thesis were the restrictions are addressed to a vigorous and insightful human being.” I clearly told them, trying to point out how that contract was referring to me like I was an isolated three year old. “I think the easiest way is for us to come to you with a new proposition.” the one said. “Taking into consideration your disagreement on these certain paragraphs.” The other continued. “I have no objection to that case scenario.” I said firmly. “But if I may gentlemen, my stay in your country will come to an end in two days’ time. So, if you are not able to have a proposition for me until then, I’m afraid I would have to revisit and both my finances and my schedule can’t grant me that privilege.” I explained them as politely as possible. “So you are saying that you can’t extend your stay in London and you probably can’t revisit?” one of them asked with a bit of a harsh tone. “I’m asking you not to forget that I am a responsible student at the University of Paris and my schedule is very tight at the moment. I don’t like to put my long term obligations on hold or even jeopardize them under any circumstances. I could make an effort and extend my stay in London for only three days; if only that’s absolutely needed. My future and my education is the highest priority for me at the current state and along with that mentioned, I would like to inform you, that all my financial resources are destined to serve that goal. As a result spending money on transportation means to be present in our upcoming meetings is not something I am willing to agree to with.” I stated and they looked again at each other. “It is obvious to us that you take your education very seriously and you are not jeopardizing your future under any circumstances. And that is something that we value in you and we think will be of great help in our future co-operation.” The man on the left said and looked at me in the eyes. “Thank you, for your understanding.” I told him politely as the other turned to look at me. “We will be in touch with you soon enough. And we can reassure you that in case of a revisit, your transportation expenses will be covered.” The man said and I felt like I had just completed the first step with total success. “Well, gentlemen-” the recording went on when I pushed the stop bottom. “Then I thanked them and we came straight here.” I told all five silent boys. Everyone wanted to know firsthand how the meeting would go from the moment I booked today’s appointment. So after the meeting Niall drove home and in a few minutes the whole gang was there. “You are kidding me, right?” Liam said and gave me a surprised look I wasn’t sure how to translate. “I told you so.” Louis said with a too content voice. He put his hands behind his head and relaxed in the big armchair, giving me a proud look. “I did good, right?” I asked them with a smile lingering. “I’d say you nailed it!” Zayn said excited and Harry started to shake his head, unable to believe what he had just heard. “Man… Honestly I wanna kiss you just for half of what I heard.” Harry teased and I turned to look at Niall. “Well I am gonna kiss you.” He said and grabbed my face in his hands. He gave me an excited kiss and my whole face was radiating with happiness at this point. “How…how did you… Man I can’t wrap my head around it…” Liam said followed by a surprised ‘Why it had to be four years before we become like that with them?’ from Harry and I let out a small laugh. “You even made them agree to pay for your tickets! Girl, you did better than I could ever imagine!” Louis commented and gave him a sweet smile. “Which wasn’t so important, cause I could help with that.” Niall said and gave me a small squeeze. “It wasn’t about the tickets, silly…”I told him a rolled my eyes at him. “It was for them to understand, I have a life, a future and certain values in my life.” I explained him and he squeezed me even more. “…and that they can’t mess with all that, just because it suits them better…” Louis added and nodded at him. “God! I found a genius!” Niall said and started kissing my cheek again and again. “Well I had some help too.” I said while smiling at Louis and turned to kiss Niall again. I knew very well that it was only a very small step, but I wasn’t lost any more and now I could believe in Niall words. And as a good friend said, anything is possible as long as your brains are in the right place. Yes… now, we can… and we will figure the rest out…


	20. Epilogue

I pushed my hair away from my face and tried to take everything in. God! I had missed this sight… I thought and let my eyes wander around the best place by the sea I had ever been to. It was a seaside in Greece. One and half hours away from the capital city, there was a remote site where the mountain is abruptly met with the sea. Few houses built on the natural slopes of the rocks, low green busses, white, enormous rocks and crystal blue water. More than twenty meters of depth from the surface to the bottom of the sea, you could see even the smallest fish passing by you in the always too calm and clear waters. Not the typical seaside, but formed with rocks, that forced you dive and climb your way out of the sea. It had very rare openings appropriate for lounging and was barely known even to the locals. I took in a deep breath and let my eyes travel to the horizon. “Helen!” I heard Niall and Louis yelling my name and felt two people running towards me. Surprised and a bit scared, I closed my eyes and froze at my place near the edge of the cliff, waiting for someone to collapse onto me or knock me into the sea. I felt the two boys running closely by both of my sides and jumping in to the water. As soon I heard the splash I opened my eyes to glare at a very excited Niall, who was joking around in the sea with Louis. “You just cost me a year of my life.” I told them both sternly. “Sorry if we scared you, love.” Niall shouted with a sweet smile. “But that was our main aim…” Louis joked and I rolled my eyes at them. They started laughing and I started walking towards our things. I smiled to myself as I remembered how they all looked at me when we arrived here. It was a mixture of shock, surprise and fear I guess. They were all concerned how to get in, how to get out, how deep it was and were all too hesitant to get in. And now… you couldn’t get them to stop diving and fooling around. “Honey get under the umbrella, you are all pink…” I told Harry that was sunbathing close to our stuff. “No, I’m fine.” He said without moving a muscle. “No, you are British. Which means you’ll be sunburned and literally untouchable for the next three days if you stay there any longer.” I told him casually and let the lotion bottle fall on his chest. “Fine…” he said and turned to put on some more sun lotion, while I smiled at myself again. I was definite he would be sunburned tomorrow, just like Niall was our first three days here. Niall and I had planned this vacation for quite a while. When we got here he wanted to do everything like we had only one day a head of us, although we were to stay approximately fifteen days. To our own amazement there was no drama to our trip. I don’t know if we were that careful or if Greek fans weren’t that extreme when it came to the boys, but I couldn’t be happier about it. We had rent a house near the sore, with great view and no neighbors. We were disturbing no one and no one was disturbing us. Niall was more excited than a four-year-old in Disneyland and it wasn’t long until he convinced the others that this was the perfect place for some isolated vacation time. One thing led to another and a week after we got here Louis and Harry were on our front door. Liam was on vacation with his new girlfriend and Zayn was too far away to come, so the four of us, Niall, Louis, Harry and I were enjoying the Greek seaside privileges. Thankfully the house was big enough for all of us and the boys weren’t as messy as I thought they would be. No, that’s a lie… but I couldn’t hold grudges at them no matter what. I thought as Niall walked over me and gave me a quick peck on the lips. I smiled at him and he grabbed my hand to get me to stand up. I got out from under our umbrella and he instantly grabbed my waist and kissed me again. “Ugh… don’t get my all wet again…” I said in a low voice as tried to put so space between me and him. “Mmm…Why?” he said teasingly and hugged me even tighter. “You’re not going in again?” he continued as I finally freed myself from him. “No, I’m not.” I told him and grabbed a towel in my arms as I turned to face him again. “I think I’ll go by the store and then home.” I said and he grabbed me again with the towel spread between us. “After all I have three babies to feed.” I joked as he kissed my cheek. “No. You have only one baby…” he said and kissed my lips again “…and two stray dogs.” He continued with a tease and Harry stuck his tongue out at him. “Mmm…not dogs, but Harry will soon look like a lobster… and Louis will probably grow a fish tale any minute now…” I teased them too as Louis approached us and sprinkled water all over Harry, who said something like ‘Fine, I’ll get up’ and rolled his eyes at me. “I think my bottom is as perfect as it always has been…” Louis joked and it was my turn to roll my eyes. “You coming?” I asked Niall and turned to grab my bag. “You were planning to leave me alone with a fish and a lobster?” Niall continued joking and I let out a chuckle. “We’ll see you at home guys…?” I said a minute before we turn to leave. “Yeah, we won’t be long…” Harry said and Niall and I started walking to my car. We parked outside the small store and walked in still in our beach outfits. “Go get the boozes and I’ll go find something I can cook.” I told Niall as we entered. “Sure he said and he entered the first corridor while I went to the last. “You’ll think I am crazy, but a customer just walked in that looks exactly like Niall!” the girl behind the counter whispered in her cellphone in Greek, without noticing me standing nearby. “No, not him. The blond one.” She continued and carefully gave Niall another glance from head to toe. “And what if his not? The poor man will think I’m crazy; not to mention my mum will kill me. No, she’ll be back any minute now.” The girl continued as I went to stand next to Niall and pocked him with my elbow. “Look carefully…You see the girl behind the counter?” I told him in a very low voice as I pretended to observe the products in the self in front of me. “She is on the phone for the past ten minutes trying to figure out if you are… well you.” I told him with a small laugh. He gave me a small laugh too and looked at the young girl. “Ha! I just looked at her… Her face went bright red and she quickly looked away…” he said amused in low voice too. “That’s why I said carefully!” I said and gave him a stern look. “Let’s go pay for these, and try not to give her a heart attack, please.” I said and we headed to the counter. We put the things on the counter and the girl started scanning them, while glancing at Niall. “Twenty two, seventy five.” She said feeling totally self-conscious, while I reached my bag to pay her. “Oh… I have no change…sorry…” I told her in Greek and I could see how surprised she was to find out I could speak her language. “It’s ok. Don’t worry.” She said back glancing at Niall once more. He caught her glance and turned to give me an amused look. “You listen to One Direction, huh?” he asked her casually pointing to the magazine she had open next to the counter. I could see her face changing into every shade of red as she froze for a moment, looking at Niall. “We-… well some… sometimes…” She replied him hesitantly eyeing at me like she was about to ask me to help her. I couldn’t help the smile that appeared on my lips so I turned my face away from the poor girl. “Sometimes? What do you listen to the rest of the time?” He asked her fakely offended. “Emmm… I don’t know…” she surged and turned again at me. I gave her a reassuring smile as I continued to put our things in plastic bags. “Imagine Dragons… Bruno Mars…some Katy Perry…” she told him shyly and he shook his head approvingly. “Mmm… I like Bruno too. He is a great guy, you know…” Niall went on casually and I was absolutely sure the young girl had no clue what was going on. God, it’s like I told him go and mess up her mind… “Niall?” I cut him and gave him a stern look. “Sorry honey, I overheard you earlier… Yes, he is Niall from One Direction…” I told her in Greek, knowing she was about to collapse and nudged Niall with my elbow. “Oh, my God!” she said in a low shy voice and sat down in the chair behind her. “I’m so ashamed. I’m so sorry you heard that phone call…” she apologized to me and I smiled at her reaction. “No, it’s fine. Really. You didn’t say anything rude after all…” I reassured her as she glanced between me and Niall. “Well since I can’t get a word from what you say…” Niall said and reached for the magazine in front of him. “…I’m just gone sign this for you… Although I look nothing like that anymore…” he said and pointing to a huge picture of him from two years ago. “You have a pen?” he asked the girl that was little by little getting what was happening in front of her. “Yes.” she smiled at him and gave him the pen. “What’s your name lovely?” he asked her while bent on the counter. “Melina.” She said back and gave me a huge smile, like she wanted to thank me. “There you go Melina. And I wasn’t messing with you before, Bruno is a great guy…” he joked and we all let a small chuckle at that comment. “I know… It’s fine. I’m really glad to… meet you…” she said honestly and smiled sweetly at both of us. “It was nice to meet you too.” Niall told her and I said a quick ‘goodbye’ as we headed back home. “Niall? Could you pass me that can over there?” I told him as I stirred the ingredients on the small pot in front of me. “Yeah…” he said absentminded and waked next to me with the can in one hand and his phone on the other. He stayed there checking his phone and forgetting all about the can. “Thank you.” I said sternly as I grabbed the can off his hand. “Yeah, sorry.” He said as he snapped out of his bubble. “Everything ok?” I asked him and added the tomato sauce in the pot. “Yes, I was checking something Liam tweeted…” he said and picked a spoon full of fusilli from the bigger pot on my left. “Anything important?” I asked casually and went to get the sausages and the cheese from the fridge. “Some tweet-hate- girlfriend drama came up and good old Liam rushed to reply blah blah blah…” he said and sat on a stool next to the counter. “Oh, don’t say it like that… He wasn’t ok with all these and defended her. I find it very thoughtful of him…” I said and started slicing the cheese. “No no, I didn’t say it like that. I meant it’s all old news…” he said and I continued to slice the rest of the ingredients. “Hey, I’m sorry don’t get me wrong here…Of course it’s thoughtful of him to defend her. I would too…if you…” he trailed off not knowing what exactly to say to me. I looked at him with the corner of my eye. “If I what?” I said casually, pretending I hadn’t noticed he was struggling. “You know…Oh, baby don’t do this…” he said in frustration and run a hand through his hair. “First of all, I didn’t do or say anything…” I told him and gave him a teasing smile. “and secondly, you started mumbling stuff and apologizing out of nowhere…” I continued and put the rest of the stuff in pot with the sauce. “…and then you started a sentence you never finished…” I said looking at him while a small chuckle escaped my lips. “You know what I wanted to say…” he said still in despair. “I know.” I said and my smile got bigger. “I just find it hilarious when you came to struggle with words at your native language.” I said and gave him a quick kiss on the lips. “Then stop playing me…” he said in a desperate voice. I let out a small chuckle at his comment and returned to my cooking. “I still don’t get why you struggled though,… and this is coming from the person on the spotlight here…” I said honestly and gave him a reassuring look. “Well… we have never discussed it… so, I don’t really know what I should or shouldn’t say…” he confessed as I turned to take a pan out. “Do you want to discuss it?” I asked him. “I don’t know…I guess…if you want too.” He said and I let on more chuckle escape. “Niall it’s not a taboo subject dear… People are hating over me from time to time… or all the time…” I continued and turned to smile at him. “You can say it…It’s not a secret…” I went on point out the obvious. “Well I know… but…” he struggled once more. “In one hand, it doesn’t feel good to address something that is hurting you…and in the other, you look like none of all these is touching you… And that’s where I get completely confused…” he said and listened to him carefully. “How come you don’t bother when people say stuff about you?” he asked desperate to learn my secret way of dealing with this. “Oh, honey I bother… I bother quite a lot sometimes…” I answered and turned to look at him still smiling. “I’m not insensible. I’m a human too. I care a lot about what people think of me just like you or Louis or Liam…” I started explaining. “But at the same time I don’t care that much…” I said and took a few steps closer to him. “You see if the people I work, or dance, or hung out with think that I am not worthy enough or that my best redeeming quality is my looks… then yes, I am truly hurt and probably one step before suicide attempt…” I said and I could see his eyes grow wider in the last words. “I’m exaggerating about the suicide part… make that very deep depression…” I said and came to stand between his legs. “But if –no offence intended- your fandom thinks I’m not too good for you…that my ass is too big… or that you’ll be better with one of them… They are free to come and lure you away…” I said and tangled my hands behind his neck as he placed his hands on my waist. “Oh! They are free to come and get me?” he teased and came really close to me. “Oh, dear don’t worry, it’s for your own good…” I joked and his soft lips met mine. He deepened our kiss and his hands traveled to my butt. “And by the way… if this butt gets any better I might have a heart attack… so please for my sanity’s sake keep it as it is…” he joked when our little make out session broke off and our heads were inches apart. “As you wish mister Horan.” I joked back and looked at his eyes. No matter how long I’ve been looking at them I could never have enough. I run a hand down his cheek as I thought about spent hours looking, staring and memorizing every inch of his face. I could this for the next hundred years and still not have seen enough of it. “I love you.” He said out of nowhere, still looking into my eyes and I snapped out of my thoughts like someone had just slapped me. My head was filled with questions. I wanted to ask if I heard right, if he was sure, if this was real but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. Instead I stayed there silent and mesmerized looking at him. “I Love you. I really do.” He said again like if he could hear all the questions in my head. I wanted to say something back. I had to say something back, but I had a lump in my throat. I bit my lip and tried to clear my head, but still I couldn’t bring myself to react to the first real ‘I love you’ I’ve ever heard. “I think you are the most beautiful and mesmerizing person I’ve ever met.” He started saying and I leant on the wall behind me for support. “I know this is not romantic at all and it’s the middle of the day… and you might not even say you love me back but I don’t care. I can’t hold it inside me any more…” He went on and I think tears were starting to build up in my eyes. “I love you and don’t care for the rest…As long as you’ll have me by your side…I don’t care… I can take anything. I don’t care what ever-” he continued and I put my right hand on his lips to stop him. “I love you too.” I said back and I knew my eyes were smiling brighter than my lips. “And I don’t care if this is romantic or in the middle of the day…” I told him sweetly and his lips formed a huge smile. He kissed my fingers and I took them away from his lips so that I could kiss him with all my mighty. The moment our lips met clapping and cheering started behind us. “You really got the girl this time Nialler!” I Louis teased and we both turned to look at them with huge smile. “How long?” I asked Harry who was innocently watching us from the end of the counter. “Since ‘I love you’ attempt one.” He said with a small laugh and I buried my head in Niall’s chest while we all laughed at whatever had just happened. But I didn’t bother… we were all part of… let’s say… a big family. “Get out and set the table.” I told Louis and Harry firmly while I was still looking at Niall. “We’ll be down in a second. We are a bit busy now…” I said with a small laugh and they did as I told them. My lips met Niall’s and I knew I was living the best moments of my life…

**Author's Note:**

> So this is a fic I wrote and posted on my tumblr innitially so I thought as it came to an end it would be a good opportunity to post it here as well...  
> My tumblr is letssunshine ,come say hi!


End file.
